OAK RIDGE: CLINTON ENGINEER WORKS

• The Choice of Oak Ridge, TN
• Oak Ridge Site Acquisition
• X-10 Graphite Reactor
• Y-12 Electromagnetic Separation Plant
• Y-12 Silver Program
• K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant
• S-50 Thermal Diffusion Plant
• Oak Ridge Town Site
• Construction Camps
• Life at Oak Ridge

The Oak Ridge, Tennessee, site—officially known as the Clinton Engineer Works—was home to the Manhattan Project's uranium enrichment production facilities, semiworks plant for production and separation of plutonium, and administrative headquarters. The S-1 Planning Board initially surveyed the site in spring 1942. The site seemed ideal, with access to sources of water and a large and reliable power supply through the Tennessee Valley Authority, a close proximity to two railroad lines, and a topography that included reasonably flat areas for large production plants divided by protective hills. After several months delay, General Leslie R. Groves selected the Oak Ridge site in his first major decision upon assuming command of the Manhattan Engineer District in September 1942. Acquisition of the 59,000 acre site began immediately. Removal of the 1,000 families residing on site from their farms and homes was largely accomplished by mid-February 1943.

Design of the facilities and procurement of materials began at once. Construction of the air-cooled graphite reactor and plutonium separation plant at the X-10 site began in February 1943. Completed in November, the facility provided experimental amounts of plutonium to the bomb laboratory at Los Alamos and invaluable reactor operation experience. Construction of the full-scale electromagnetic plant for separation of uranium-235 at the Y-12 site also began in February 1943. Expanded several times, the electromagnetic facility borrowed 14,700 tons of silver borrowed from the U.S. Treasury for use in the electromagnets in place of copper that was not available due to war demands. The Y-12 plant's nine Alpha and eight Beta racetracks produced the lion's share of the wartime uranium-235, with the Betas providing the final product to Los Alamos. Despite ongoing design and development difficulties, construction of the electric powerhouse for the massive gaseous diffusion plant for the enrichment of uranium-235 at the K-25 site began in May 1943, with groundbreaking for the plant itself commencing in September. K-25 production came online in stages, beginning in February 1945, as the plant was completed. When both the Y-12 and K-25 facilities proved to have more problems than anticipated, Groves in June 1944 authorized the construction adjacent to the K-25 powerhouse of a third facility for producing uranium-235, the S-50 plant, which used the principle of liquid thermal diffusion. Both the K-25 and S-50 plants provided feed material for the Y-12's Alpha and Betas.

With so much construction and so many facilities to operate, Oak Ridge employed tens of thousands of workers needing somewhere to live. In a little over two years, Oak Ridge went from sparsely populated farmland to the fifth largest urban area in Tennessee with a population of 75,000. Construction at the Oak Ridge town site began in fall 1942 and consisted of family housing, dormitories, and administrative and auxiliary buildings, as well as commercial facilities such as supermarkets, drugstores, shops, cafeterias, and laundries. Construction workers generally lived in construction camps in temporary housing comprised of house trailers and five-man prefabricated hutments. Most of the camps were in the vicinity of the Oak Ridge town site, but the most populous camp, known as "Happy Valley," was located near the K-25 site. Officials and workers sought to make life at Oak Ridge as normal as possible, but government ownership of just about everything, strict security requirements, and a "boom town" atmosphere made for a community that not normal in any sense that most Americans would have recognized.

To continue with a quick overview of the Places of the Manhattan Project, jump ahead to the description of the Hanford Engineer Works. To learn more about Oak Ridge, choose a web page from the menu below:

• The Choice of Oak Ridge, TN
• Oak Ridge Site Acquisition
• X-10 Graphite Reactor
• Y-12 Electromagnetic Separation Plant
• Y-12 Silver Program
• K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant
• S-50 Thermal Diffusion Plant
• Oak Ridge Town Site
• Construction Camps
• Life at Oak Ridge

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