friedman fact check

Tom Friedman's latest book, on energy technology, is "Hot, Flat and Crowded."  His description of his plan:

I want so many people throwing crazy dollars at every idea, in every garage, that we have 100,000 people trying 100,000 things, five of which might work, and two might be the next green Google. But I don’t want a Manhattan Project of 12 people in Los Alamos.

As usual, Friedman likes to make up facts to go with his argument.  The Manhattan Project was enormous, employing well over 100,000 people. Here are some details:

• 10 locations, including a skyscraper, and 5000 employees in Manhattan alone. (NY Times, Oct. 30, 2007)
• The Uranium processing facility caused Oak Ridge, Tennessee to grow into the fifth largest city in Tennessee with 75,000 people. The complex contained a 350-bed hospital, 55 miles of railroad, 13 supermarkets, nine drug stores and a complete school system. (more here)
• At one point Oak Ridge plants were consuming 1/6th of the electrical power produced in the U.S., more than New York City. (Wikipedia)
• Total expenditures: $2 billion in 1945 (approximately $24 billion in current dollars) (Brookings study)

Comments

[ElZo]

So, uh, did you just know all this stuff off the top of your head?

[Archit Shah]

I remember hearing about the size of the Manhattan Project budget on PBS. Google did the rest.