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To: jb6; DuncanWaring; sergey1973
Originally posted by JB6(Truth==Christ):
"6. after dropping the second bomb on Japan we didn't have another bomb for 4 years. US has very little Uranium."

You might ask God for a refresher course in the 'truth'...

Could you be more wrong? Let us count the ways... First as to your contention that after the US dropped the second atomic bomb on Japan that the US did not have another atomic bomb for four years. The TRUTH is that there was a third atomic bomb being readied for a combat drop. Didn't know that, did you?

The United States actually had three Atomic weapons ready for use near the end of WWII, two of which were dropped on Japan, the third was being readied for a mission by Col. Tibbets' unit, the 509th Composite Group when Japan surrendered. The USA had two "Fat Man" plutonium Atomic weapons in the inventory at the end of calendar year 1945.

In an August 2002 interview with Studs Terkel published in the British Guardian newspaper, Paul Tibbetts recalled something similar: "Unknown to anybody else--I knew it, but nobody else knew--there was a third one. See, the first bomb went off and they didn't hear anything out of the Japanese for two or three days. The second bomb was dropped and again they were silent for another couple of days. Then I got a phone call from General Curtis LeMay. He said, 'You got another one of those damn things?' I said, 'Yessir.' He said, 'Where is it?' I said, 'Over in Utah.' He said, 'Get it out here. You and your crew are going to fly it.' I said, 'Yessir.' I sent word back and the crew loaded it on an airplane and we headed back to bring it right on out to Trinian and when they got it to California debarkation point, the war was over."

Source: Warbird Forum: The third bomb



Now let's get to your laughable contention that the US did not have another bomb for another four years...

The reason that your assertion is so incorrect to be sophmorically stupid was that there WAS a production line set up to generate plutonium cores for the "Fat Man" model of the US nuclear stockpile! Did you think that the US had invested 2 billion (1943) dollars just to make five atomic bombs in 1945? The only reason that the US did not go into wartime production mode on the 'Fat Man' plutonium cores is that the war ENDED. The "Little Boy" uranium gun-type atomic weapon first dropped on Hiroshima was a one-off model, never produced again. All of the other US atomic weapons were of the plutonium-implosion "Fat Man" model. So the first bomb was tested in the US during July 1945. Two more atomic weapons were dropped on Japan in August 1945. One more atomic bomb was being readied for Tokyo for late August 1945; it was never delivered. At the end of calendar year 1945 the US had two "Fat Man" type nuclear weapons in its inventory out of the five produced in 1945, however if Japan had not surrendered the nuclear 'production line' that you insist did not exist was designed to produce 7 plutonium cored nuclear weapons per month. More than enough to take care of the Nazis and/or the Japs.

"A third bomb was being shipped from New Mexico, target Tokyo, when the war ended. Production was geared to seven per month with an expectation that 50 bombs would be required to assure that an invasion would not be required. Release of radiation from the untested Hiroshima bomb, designed as the original gun-type and made of uranium, was a surprise. The radiation range was expected to be within the blast radius, that is, a lethal dose of radiation would only kill those already dead from concussion. The Alamogordo bomb test and later production were of the more complicated plutonium, yet cleaner, implosion device."

Source: WW2 Pacific: Little Known Facts: Atomic Bomb -- Allies

The United States did feel the need to build more nuclear weapons in the immediate aftermath of WWII, since the demobilization of the 12.34 million Armed Forces of WWII had made the post-war US nuclear monopoly the first-line of defense for the United States and its interests. No "hindsight" was necessary, since the expense of the $2 Billion Manhattan Project was amortized over the following production of US nuclear weapons from 1945 onwards.

There was no need for the US to wait to build more atomic weapons until the USSR detonated their first atomic bomb in August of 1949, as by 1949 the United States had around 235 atomic weapons in its nuclear arsenal. Winston Churchill gave his famous "Iron Curtain" speach at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri on March 5, 1946 - the official 'start' of the Cold War, three years before the USSR tested its first atomic bomb. Note the ramp-up in production in 1946. Notice that by the four year time frame from the end of WWII in September 1945 to September 1949 the US had produced 235 atomic weapons. You stated that ZERO were produced in that same time frame.

Which statement is the TRUTH, yours or history's...


U.S. Nuclear Weapon Inventory


Year US Nukes
1945 5
1946 11
1947 32
1948 110
1949 235
1950 370
1951 640
1952 1,000
1960 18,000


Source: Power Point Presentation USC Berkeley - History - 105, Dr. McCray "Early Nuclear Strategy" Slide #9.
Source: Complete List of All U.S. Nuclear Weapons The NuclearWeaponsArchive.org

Now as to your last contention about the US uranium reserves. The US has 3% of the world's know uranium reserves, Canada has 12% and Australia has 28% of the world's known economically recoverable uranium reserves. The US reserves alone would have been enough to re-create the US nuclear weapons inventory at the height of the cold war five times over. Access to the raw ore was never the problem, refining it was the reason for the massive expenditure of the Manhattan Project and follow-ons in the the 1950s and 1960s.


dvwjr

40 posted on 05/05/2005 4:41:04 PM PDT by dvwjr
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To: dvwjr
Darn, you're good.

Where'd you find all that?

41 posted on 05/05/2005 5:42:59 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: dvwjr

Interesting, and how many nukes has US today?


45 posted on 05/06/2005 5:27:51 AM PDT by Lukasz
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