Plural of calutron; a large electromagnetic device used to separate uranium isotopes by weight during the Manhattan Project and nuclear weapons production.
A portmanteau of 'California' (where it was developed at Berkeley) and 'cyclotron' (the particle accelerator it was based on), created in the 1940s during World War II for uranium enrichment.
The calutron was such a massive, expensive machine that its success at enriching uranium convinced the U.S. government that nuclear weapons were actually achievable—so this single device fundamentally changed world history and the outcome of WWII.
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