Clinton Engineer Works
36°0′48″N 84°15′45″W / 36.01333°N 84.26250°W / 36.01333; -84.26250 (Oak Ridge) The Clinton Engineer Works (CEW) was the production installation of the Manhattan Project that during World War II produced the enriched uranium used in the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima, as well as the first examples of reactor-produced plutonium.
The town was developed by the federal government as a segregated community; Black Americans lived only in an area known as Gamble Valley, in government-built "hutments" (one-room shacks) on the south side of what is now Tuskegee Drive.
[1][2][3] A War Department policy held that, as a rule, munitions facilities should not be located west of the Sierra or Cascade Ranges, east of the Appalachian Mountains, or within 200 miles (320 km) of the Canadian or Mexican borders.
[3] An OSRD team had selected the Knoxville area in April 1942,[1] and in May Arthur Compton, the director of the Metallurgical Laboratory, had met with Gordon R. Clapp, the general manager of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
After receiving assurances that the TVA could supply the required quantity of electric power if given priority for procuring some needed equipment, Groves also concluded that the Knoxville area was suitable.
[6] The only voice of dissent at the 25 June meeting was Ernest O. Lawrence, who wanted the electromagnetic separation plant located much nearer to his Radiation Laboratory in California.
[7] On 1 July, Marshall and his deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Nichols, surveyed sites in the Knoxville area with representatives of the TVA and Stone & Webster, the designated construction contractor.
[2] At the time, the proposed nuclear reactor, gas centrifuge and gaseous diffusion technologies were still in the research stage, and the design of the plant was a long way off.
[18]Although War Department policy maintained that land should be acquired by direct purchase, time was short and thus it was decided to proceed immediately with condemnation.
[20] Recognizing the hardship that it would cause to the landowners, it restricted immediate exclusive possession to properties "essential to full and complete development of the project".
The ORD Real Estate Branch invoked a procedure under Tennessee law that allowed for a jury of five citizens appointed by the federal district court to review the compensations offered.
May, the chairman of the House Committee on Military Affairs, appointed an investigating subcommittee chaired by Tennessee Representative Clifford Davis, who selected Dewey Short of Missouri and John Sparkman of Alabama as its other members.
The committee report, presented in December 1943, made a number of specific recommendations concerning the Corps of Engineers' land acquisition process, but neither Congress nor the War Department moved to provide additional compensation for the landowners.
[29][30][31] Cooper was unimpressed; he told Leonard that he had not been informed about the purpose of the CEW and that the Army had kicked the farmers off their land and had not compensated the counties for the roads and bridges which would be closed.
Nichols, who succeeded Marshall as chief engineer of the Manhattan District, met Cooper on 31 July[32] and offered compensation in the form of federal financing for road improvements.
[33][34] Additional parcels of land were acquired during 1943 and 1944 for access roads, a railway spur, and for security purposes, bringing the total to about 58,900 acres (23,800 ha).
[36] On 2 February 1943, DuPont began construction of the plutonium semiworks[38] on an isolated 112-acre (0.5 km2) site in Bethel Valley about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Oak Ridge.
There was also an acute shortage of common and skilled labor: the contractor had only three-quarters of the required workforce, and less after high turnover and absenteeism, mainly the result of poor accommodations and difficulties in commuting.
A week later the load was increased to 36 short tons (33 t), raising its power generation to 500 kW, and by the end of the month the first 500 mg of plutonium was created.
[85] The 235,000 KW steam plant was required for reliability; in 1953-55 a rat shorting out a transformer at CEW resulted in a complete loss of load and of several weeks of production.
[88] Brigadier General Lucius D. Clay, the deputy chief of staff of the Army Services of Supply, reminded Marshall of a wartime limit of $7,500 per capita for individual quarters.
[97][92] Although expected to accommodate the needs of the entire workforce, by late 1944 expansion of both the electromagnetic and gaseous diffusion plants led to forecasts of a population of 62,000.
The Army attempted to keep prices down by encouraging competition, but this met with limited success due to the captive nature of the population, and the requirements of security, which meant that firms and goods could not freely move in and out.
[88] By 1945, community amenities included 6 recreation halls, 36 bowling alleys, 23 tennis courts, 18 ball parks, 12 playgrounds, a swimming pool, a 9,400-volume library, and a newspaper.
[104] Despite the security, the Clinton Engineer Works was penetrated by atomic spies George Koval and David Greenglass, who passed secrets to the Soviet Union.
While most Oak Ridge residents had high school diplomas, and many had college degrees, the average education level of adults in Anderson County was only 6.8 years.
The atomic bomb which you have helped to develop with high devotion to patriotic duty is the most devastating military weapon that any country has ever been able to turn against its enemy.
[134] Oak Ridge City Historian William J. Wilcox, Jr. notes that the townspeople "thoroughly enjoyed their much protected existence and the benevolence the Army had provided".
Vice President Alben W. Barkley, Governor Gordon Browning, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman David E. Lilienthal, and movie star Marie McDonald were on hand to watch the guards take down the barriers.
[137] On 6 June 1951, the Senate Appropriations Committee called on the Atomic Energy Commission to discontinue "the present undemocratic method" of operating the community,[138] and it initiated steps to coerce Oak Ridge residents to establish democratic institutions and adopt a free enterprise system.
