Arthur Compton’s 1941 Report on explosive fission of U-235: A look at the physics

Abstract

In November 1941, the third of three reports on atomic fission commissioned by Vannevar Bush through the National Academy of Sciences examined the prospects for explosive fission in U-235. This report, prepared by Arthur Compton, developed a model for estimating the critical mass and efficiency of an atomic bomb. I examine Compton’s physics, attempt to discern the provenance of the numbers he adopted for various parameters, and compare his results with those yielded by a full diffusion-theory approach with contemporary values for the fission parameters. I conclude that Compton’s physics is sound. A combination of somewhat optimistic parameter values and a conservative model for critical mass lead him to a numerical value for the bare critical radius of U-235 that is in fairly good accord with that yielded by diffusion theory. His estimated efficiency proved to be quite accurate for the Little Boy bomb.

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