Lecture I Soviet Espionage Not only is the

Lecture I Soviet Espionage

Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, but it is stranger than we can imagine. Eddington, Heisenberg, Haldane

The scales of distance and time in atomic and nuclear reactions are difficult for us to imagine. One human hair is about one tenth of a millimetre in diameter. Yet at least a Million atoms could fit across a hair. And the nucleus is at least 10, 000 times smaller. And, my favourite number, there are molecules of water in a glass of water than there are glasses of water in all the oceans on Earth.

1 second is a measurable time, the tick of a watch, the beat of a heart. But a microsecond is 1 millionth of a second and hard to imagine how much difference that makes. To translate that time, imagine 1 microsecond was the tick of a watch. Then 1 second would last 11 and 1/2 days. A nanosecond is one thousandth of a microsecond. If 1 nanosecond were the tick of a watch, then 1 second would last 31 years and 9 months. And a picosecond is 1000 th of a nanosecond or a millionth of a microsecond. If a picosecond were the tick of a watch, 1 second would last 317 centuries. Hard to imagine.

A quien le digas tus secretos, renuncia a tu libertad To whom you tell your secrets, to him you resign your liberty. Spanish Proverb

“I. . found many problems piling up on theoretical side, and I could not deal with all of them fast enough. . . I needed some regular help - somehow with whom I would be able to discuss theoretical technicalities. I looked around for a suitable person, and thought of Klaus Fuchs. ” Rudolph Peierls, 1942

“take whatever measures you think fit to obtain information on: -the theoretical and practical aspects of atomic bomb projects, the design of the bomb, fuel components and trigger mechanism; -methods of isotope separation -transuranium elements and neutron physics -which government departments are doing this, where the work is being done and under whose leadership. ” Cable to Soviet agents in London and New York, June 1942

Igor Kurchatov (1903 - 1960)

“The world learned about plutonium at Nagasaki. ” Glenn Seaborg, the discoverer of Plutonium. But Soviet scientists learned about plutonium early in 1943, thanks to Klaus Fuchs.

Morris Cohen Leontine (Lona) Cohen

Harry Gold

Klaus Fuchs

If the god of war had wanted to provide Igor Kurchatov with a clear channel directly into the heart of the most important and secret work then underway at Los Alamos, he could not have chosen a more providential channel than Klaus Fuchs.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

Jacob Golos and Elizabeth Bentley

David and Ruth Greenglass

STOCKS OF ACTIVE MATERIALS a) Uranium-235. By April of this year (1945) the amount of uranium-235 was 25 kg. Its production now constitutes 7. 5 kg per month. b) Plutonium (element 94). There are 6. 5 kg of plutonium on hand at Compound Y (Los Alamos). Its production is organised. The plans for production are overfulfilled. The explosion is anticipated July 10 this year.

A single demand of you, comrades. Provide us with atomic weapons in the shortest possible time. You know that Hiroshima has shaken the whole world. The equilibrium has been destroyed. Provide the bomb - it will remove a great danger from us. Josef Stalin