MarketThird Shot
Company Profile

Third Shot

The Third Shot was an American nuclear weapon intended for use against Japan in World War II, subsequent to the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was intended to be used on 19 August 1945, ten days after the bombing of Nagasaki. It was the first in a series of additional atomic bombs being assembled to strike Japan but was never used, as the country's surrender on 15 August brought the war to a close. The Third Shot was a plutonium-239-based implosion bomb of the "Fat Man" design, similar to the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki.

Chronology
Lieutenant General Leslie Groves expected to have another "Fat Man" atomic bomb ready for use on 19 August, with three more in September and a further three in October; On 10 August, he sent a memorandum to General George C. Marshall: "the next bomb ... should be ready for delivery on the first suitable weather after 17 or 18 August." The memo today contains hand-written comment written by Marshall: "It is not to be released over Japan without express authority from the President." At Los Alamos Laboratory, technicians worked 24 hours straight to cast another plutonium core. Although cast, it still needed to be pressed and coated, which would take until 16 August. Therefore, it could have been ready for use on 19 August. Unable to reach Marshall or Stinson, Groves ordered on his own authority on 13 August that the core should not be shipped. == Aftermath ==
Aftermath
After the decision was made not to use the bomb, its plutonium core was kept to be used for research. The core was nicknamed "Rufus", and became known as the demon core following two successive lethal criticality accidents. The core was melted down in summer 1946 and the material recycled for use in other cores. == Notes ==
tickerdossier.comtickerdossier.substack.com