Nuclear Science for the Manhattan Project and Comparison to Today's ENDF Data

TL;DR

This paper reviews the rapid advancements in nuclear data during the Manhattan Project era, comparing early measurements with modern ENDF data, highlighting significant reductions in uncertainties and improvements in nuclear constants.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive comparison of historical nuclear measurements with current evaluated data, and archives original early measurements in the EXFOR database.

Findings

Uncertainties in nuclear data were reduced from over 25-50% to below 10%.

Fission cross sections for 235 U and 239 Pu were measured more accurately.

Early critical mass estimates closely matched final values due to error cancellations.

Abstract

Nuclear physics advances in the US and Britain, from 1939-1945, are described. The Manhattan Project's work led to an explosion in our knowledge of nuclear science. A conference in April 1943 at Los Alamos provided a simple formula used to compute critical masses, and laid out the research program needed to determine the key nuclear constants. In short order, four university accelerators were disassembled and reassembled at Los Alamos, and methods were established to make measurements on extremely small samples owing to the initial lack of availability of enriched 235 U and plutonium. I trace the program that measured fission cross sections, fission emitted neutron multiplicities and their energy spectra, and transport cross sections, comparing the measurements with our best understanding today as embodied in the Evaluated Nuclear Data File ENDF/B-VIII.0. The large nuclear data uncertainties at the beginning of the project, which often exceeded 25--50%, were reduced by 1945, often to less than 5-10%. 235 U and 239 Pu fission cross section assessments in the fast MeV range were reduced with more accurate measurements, and the neutron multiplicity increased. By a lucky coincidence of cancelling errors, the initial critical mass estimates were close to the final estimated masses. Some images from historical documents from our Los Alamos archives are shown. Many of the original measurements from these early years have not previously been widely available. Through this work, these data have now been archived in the international experimental nuclear reaction data library (EXFOR) in a collaboration with the IAEA and Brookhaven National Laboratory.