[tntn]

That's not really how the history of atomic bombs went down. Szilàrd imagined the destructive power of chain reactions around 1932, nuclear fission was discovered in 1938, and soon after the Manhattan project was started with the clear intention of understanding the science enough to make a bomb.

I frequently encounter people who believe that nuclear energy was harnessed initially for power generation and then co-opted for destructive purposes. The first nuclear reactor was created to enrich uranium to make a bomb.