TUBE ALLOYS

TUBE ALLOYS was a cryptonym for nuclear weapons used during World War II, when the very possibility of nuclear weapons was kept at such a high level of secrecy that it had to be referred to by code even in the highest circles of government. The term was most famously used in the section of the Quebec Agreement between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill of August 19, 1943, formally entitled "Articles of Agreement governing collaboration between the authorities of the U.S.A. and U.K. in the matter of Tube Alloys".

Related Topics:
Cryptonym - Nuclear weapon - World War II - Quebec Agreement - Franklin D. Roosevelt - Winston Churchill - August 19 - 1943

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It is also known as the informal name of Britain's initial World War II atomic bomb project, which eventually folded into the American Manhattan Project. The Tube Alloys project sprang from the Frisch-Peierls memorandum which was the first piece of work to lay out a practical way to make an atomic bomb. The memo prompted the MAUD report which in turn led to the Tube Alloys project.

Related Topics:
Manhattan Project - Frisch-Peierls memorandum - MAUD

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Later in the war, tube alloy came to refer specifically to the synthetic element plutonium, whose very existence was secret until its use in the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

Related Topics:
Plutonium - Atomic bombing of Nagasaki

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