Canada and the First Atomic Bombs

When C. D. Howe heard, on August 6, 1945, that a uranium bomb had destroyed the city of Hiroshima, he was not surprised. As Minister responsible for Canada's part in the World War II Atomic Bomb Project, he knew it was intended.

He had prepared a statement for the press in advance. "It is a distinct pleasure for me to announce," he said, "that Canadian scientists have played an intimate part, and have been associated in an effective way with this great scientific development."

Three days later, a plutonium bomb destroyed Nagasaki.

For the first time, Canadians were told that uranium from Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories, and scientists working in a secret laboratory in Montreal, had played an important role in the Anglo-Canadian-American Atomic Bomb Project -- the largest secret project in human history.

The tripartite A-Bomb Project was a joint venture that began in 1940-41. It was cemented with a secret Agreement signed by Roosevelt and Churchill in Quebec City, August 1943.

The Quebec Agreement stipulated that the Bomb would not be used "against each other," or "against third parties without each other's consent". It also established a Combined Policy Committee of six to deal with the Bomb: three Americans, two Brits, and the Honourable C. D. Howe.

By the time the first A-Bombs were used, Roosevelt and Churchill were gone. Truman and Atlee, their successors, knew nothing about the atomic bomb before they came to office.

But Mackenzie King was still Prime Minister, and he knew. On October 11, 1945, he wrote in his diary: "How strange it is that I should find myself at the very centre of the problem, through Canada possessing uranium, having contributed to the production of the bomb, being recognized as one of the three countries to hold most of the secrets."

Stranger still is the secrecy that still shrouds Canada's historic role, and the lack of public awareness regarding Canada's current nuclear policies.



Uranium and Plutonium from Canada

Until 1939, uranium was an unwanted waste product from radium mining. There were tons of it lying around Port Hope, Ontario, since a refinery had operated there in the 1930s to extract radium from ores from Great Bear Lake.

Early in 1939, German scientists proved uranium atoms could be split, or fissioned, releasing energy. If a chain reaction could be achieved, an "atomic bomb" was possible. Within months, French scientists, using heavy water smuggled from Norway as a moderator, were trying to provoke a chain reaction. They fled to England with the heavy water when Germany invaded France.

In 1940, the British figured out how to make an atomic bomb by enriching natural uranium -- a slow, difficult, expensive process. In utmost secrecy, they asked the Americans for cooperation, and the Canadians for uranium.

Following Pearl Harbour, the Americans took over. Uranium for the world's first A-Bombs was refined at Port Hope for the U.S. Army. At first, it came from Great Bear Lake; later, from the Congo. Some of the uranium was enriched for the Hiroshima bomb; the rest was irradiated in the world's first nuclear reactors to produce plutonium for the Nagasaki bomb.

In 1942, the British moved their own plutonium-production research team to Montreal -- away from the Luftwaffe, closer to the Americans. Canada paid all expenses, and Canadian scientists joined the team.

The Montreal Lab focussed on the best ways to produce plutonium for Bombs. The French group was there too, with their heavy water. It was known that reactors moderated with heavy water would produce more plutonium.

The decision to build Canada's first heavy water reactors at Chalk River was taken in April 1944 by the Combined Policy Committee, meeting in the office of the American Secretary of War. It was a top-secret military decision.

According to the inscription on a large bronze plaque at Chalk River: