History

Albert Einstein writes President Franklin D. Roosevelt, alerting the President to the importance of research on nuclear chain reactions and the possibility that research might lead to developing powerful bombs. Einstein notes that Germany has stopped the sale of uranium and German physicists are engaged in uranium research. 

The Army Corps of Engineers establishes the Manhattan Engineer District to develop and build the atomic bomb. Uranium isotope separation facilities are built at Oak Ridge, Tennessee; plutonium production reactors are built at Hanford, Washington; and a weapons laboratory is set up at Los Alamos, New Mexico. 

President Eisenhower signs the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, opening the way for the development of a civilian nuclear power program. 

The United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union sign the Limited Test Ban Treaty prohibiting underwater, atmospheric, and outer space nuclear tests. Nuclear testing continues underground. 

On October 6, 1973, the Yom Kippur War breaks out in the Middle East. On October 17, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries declares an oil embargo, exacerbating the first "energy crisis." 

President Reagan addresses the nation on national security and announces the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a satellite-based defense system that would destroy incoming missiles and warheads in space. 

Secretary O’Leary announces an "openness" initiative to lift the veil of secrecy from past nuclear activities, revealing that one-fifth of the nation’s nuclear weapons tests had been kept secret, identifying locations and quantities of weapons-grade plutonium, providing information about fusion energy, and documenting the large quantities of mercury used in weapons production. 

Secretary Abraham formally recommends to President Bush that the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada be developed as the nation's first long-term geologic repository for high-level radioactive waste. 

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Secretary Ernest Moniz sign a memorandum of agreement establishing the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The agreement directs how the National Park Service (NPS) and the Department of Energy will work together to preserve, protect, and provide access to the historic resources associated with the Manhattan Project at locations in Oak, Ridge, Tennessee; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and the Hanford Site in Washington state.