EDWARDS: Canada and the Bomb – Past and Future

[Oscar]

EDWARDS: Canada and the Bomb – Past and Future

[ http://www.ccnr.org/Canada_and_Bomb.pdf ]

by Gordon Edwards, Ph.D., October 1, 2014

to appear in Canadian Dimension Magazine

The Canadian Connection

On the day that Hiroshima was blown away by the first Atomic Bomb, killing 100,000 Japanese men women and children, the Honourable C.D. Howe issued a statement: “It is a distinct pleasure for me to announce that Canadian scientists have played an intimate part, and have been associated in an effective way, with this great scientific achievement.”

For the first time, Canadians learned that uranium from the Northwest Territories and scientists working in a Montreal laboratory had taken part in the WWII Atomic Bomb Project – the largest secret project in history.

Hiroshima and the Uranium Connection

The British learned in 1940 that an A-Bomb can be made from uranium only through a very slow “enrichment” process; once uranium is highly enriched, it becomes a powerful nuclear explosive. They communicated this information to the Americans, who years later made the Hiroshima bomb using highly enriched uranium (HEU). At that time, Canada had the only readily available supply of uranium at Port Hope, Ontario. Radium ore from Great Bear Lake had been refined there in the 1930s, leaving tonnes of uranium-bearing wastes behind. The UK and US began buying Canada’s uranium in 1941.

This loose tripartite cooperation was formalized in August 1943 when Roosevelt and Churchill, guests of Prime Minister Mackenzie King, signed the Quebec Agreement, a secret pledge for the three countries to work together to build the world’s first Atomic Bombs. To oversee uranium supplies for the Bomb Project, a Combined Policy Committee was created, with three Americans, two Brits, and one Canadian, meeting in Washington DC.

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[ http://www.ccnr.org/Canada_and_Bomb.pdf ]