# 1945 ## August 6, 1945 | Stimson Says Bomb's Power "Staggers the Imagination" **Source:** https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-atomic-bombs-power-st/128659723/ **Highlights:** - Secretary Stimson predicted today that the atomic bomb will "prove a tremendous aid" in shortening the war with Japan. The War Secretary made his statement as the Army reported that an "impenetrable cloud of dust and smoke" cloaked Hiroshima after it was hit by the new weapon from the air. - While Germany worked "feverishly" to develop an atomic bomb, Stimson said, the Nazi defeat now has erased danger from that source. - Stimson promised that further statements will be released in the future to give additional details concerning scientific and production aspects. He disclosed that development of the bomb was carried out by thousands of persons "with the greatest secrecy." The work has been so divided, he said, that no one has been given more information concerning the bomb than was absolutely necessary to his particular job. - The possibility of using atomic energy in the manufacture of weapons, Stimson said, was brought to President Roosevelt's attention late in 1939. The Chief Executive named a committee to investigate and by June 1942, Stimson said sufficient progress had been made to warrant a big expansion of the project. - Three plants to produce the bombs were started in December, 1942. Two of these are located at the Clinton Engineer Works in Tennessee and a third at the Hanford Engineer Works in Washington State. The Clinton Engineer Works is located on a government reservation 18 miles west of Knoxville, Tenn. The Hanford Engineer Works is located on a 430,000 acre reservation 15 miles northwest of Pasco, Wash. In addition, a special laboratory to deal with technical problems has been established near Santa Fe, N. - M. The laboratory is directed by Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer whose "genius and inspiration," Stimson said, has been largely responsible for development of the bomb. Stimson said the fact that atomic energy can now be released on a large scale in an atomic bomb raises the prospect that such energy may have a big place in peacetime industrial purposes. - The secretary added: "Already in the course of producing one of the elements much energy is being released, not eexplosivelybut in regulated amounts. This energy, however, is in the form of heat at a temperature too low to make practicable the operation of a cconventional power plant. It will be a matter of much further research and development to design machines for the conversion of atomic energy into useful power.