Recycled Russian nuclear weapons provide 10 percent of the nuclear energy that the United States uses. The short presentation discusses the Teller-Ulam device. It provides a diagram of the parts as well as a description of the four...

The Manhattan Project was a massive undertaking involving multiple sites and thousands of scientists and technicians. To gain an understanding of the women who participated in the project, groups select an oral history of a woman...

Students research and discuss issues surrounding the atomic bomb and the concerns it raised and the consequences of dropping the atomic bombs on Japan. A variety of sample questions are provided to engage discussion.

A lesson about the Manhattan Project will explode young physicists' understanding of the racial attitudes in the United States during and after World war II. Groups select an African American scientist or technician that worked on the...

Students critically investigate the issues surrounding the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan. They conclude if dropping the bombs was a correct decision or not and support their conclusions with documentation. Students tie in atomic...

Eleventh graders study the different areas of nuclear chemistry.  In this energy and critical thinking lesson students study radiation, nuclear energy and weapons then divide into groups and create a poster.

Students role-play a trial regarding the taking of family property for a new water purification plant. Among the roles are the judge, attorneys, witnesses, plaintiff, mayor, and jury members. Once both sides present their case, the...

A collection that uses primary sources to explore the Atomic Bomb and the Nuclear Age it started.

Describes the history of the invention of the atomic bomb, its use in World War II against Japan, the impact on people who were targetted by it, the immediate and long-term impact on generations of people, the effect on communications,...

Discusses the nature of the atom, harnessing nuclear fission, conceiving the atomic bomb, the Manhattan Project, and the revival of the nuclear boiler.

A biography of Glenn Theodore Seaborg. He discovered the plutonium that was used in America's atomic bomb in World War II. He made many other important discoveries, but also worked for decades to promote nuclear disarmament and the safe...

Enrico Fermi was a titan of twentieth-century physics. He outlined the statistical laws that govern the behavior of particles that abide by the Pauli exclusion principle and developed a theoretical model of the atom in his mid-twenties....

This article from "The New York Times" at Nuclearfiles.org recounts the ongoing debate about the first hydrgen bomb and who truly should be credited with its development.

Site explores the history of the first nuclear weapons and the challenges of maintaining these weapons today.