Editing Glenn T. Seaborg (section)

==Scientific contributions during the Manhattan Project==
On April 19, 1942, Seaborg reached Chicago and joined the chemistry group at the [[Metallurgical Laboratory]] of the Manhattan Project at the [[University of Chicago]], where [[Enrico Fermi]] and his group would later convert [[uranium-238]] to plutonium-239 in a controlled [[nuclear chain reaction]]. Seaborg's role was to figure out how to extract the tiny bit of plutonium from the mass of [[uranium]]. Plutonium-239 was isolated in visible amounts using a transmutation reaction on August 20, 1942, and weighed on September 10, 1942, in Seaborg's [[George Herbert Jones Laboratory|Chicago laboratory]]. He was responsible for the multi-stage chemical process that separated, concentrated and isolated plutonium. This process was further developed at the [[Clinton Engineering Works]] in [[Oak Ridge, Tennessee]], and then entered full-scale production at the [[Hanford Engineer Works]], in [[Richland, Washington]].<ref>{{cite web |title = Glenn Seaborg's Greatest Hits |url = http://isswprod.lbl.gov/Seaborg/hits.htm |publisher = [[Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory]] |access-date = August 26, 2012 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20041015051852/http://isswprod.lbl.gov/Seaborg/hits.htm |archive-date = October 15, 2004 }}</ref>

Seaborg's theoretical development of the [[actinide concept]] resulted in a redrawing of the periodic table into its current configuration with the [[actinide series]] appearing below the [[lanthanide series]]. Seaborg developed the chemical elements americium and curium while in Chicago. He managed to secure patents for both elements. His patent on curium never proved commercially viable because of the element's short half-life, but americium is commonly used in household [[smoke detectors]] and thus provided a good source of royalty income to Seaborg in later years. Prior to the test of the first nuclear weapon, Seaborg joined with several other leading scientists in a written statement known as the [[Franck Report]] (secret at the time but since published) unsuccessfully calling on President Truman to conduct a public demonstration of the atomic bomb witnessed by the Japanese.{{sfnp|Rhodes|1986|pp=320, 340–43, 348, 354, 369, 377, 395}}