Atomic Story 3

3  - The War and the Bomb

In as early January 1940 the team from Birmingham put their research to Sir Henry Tizard. Interesting ly the scientists were Rudolf Peierls and Otto Robert Frisch, two physicists who were refugees from Nazi Germany working at the University of Birmingham under the direction of Mark Oliphant. As early as April 1939, an approach had been by the team at Cambridge made concerning the feasilibity of an Atomic bomb. They approached Sir Kenneth Pickthorn, the local Member of Parliament, who took their concerns to the Secretary of the Committee for Imperial Defence, Major General Hastings Ismay. Ismay in turn asked Sir Henry Tizard for an opinion. Like many scientists, Tizard was sceptical of the likelihood of an atomic bomb being developed, reckoning the odds of success at 100,000 to 1

Even at such long odds, the danger was sufficiently great to be taken seriously, but Tizard's Committee for the Scientific Survey of Air Warfare (CSSAW) was directed to continue the research into the feasibility of atomic bombs.

The French connection

Meanwhile the French (with allied cooperation) had succeeded in removing the only source of heavy water (a key component in the production of enriched Uranium 235) from Norway due to fears that it may be captured by the Germans.

They also heard from Jacques Allier of the French Deuxieme Bureau, who had been involved in the removal of the entire stock of heavy water from Norway. He told them of the interest the Germans had shown in the heavy water, and in the activity of the French researchers in Paris. Because of the key element (no pun) in this being Uranium, immediate action was taken: the Ministry of Economic Warfare was asked to secure stocks of uranium oxide in danger of being captured by the Germans.

At the time the only source of Uranium was a mine in the Belgian Congo. Lord Chartfield, Minister for Coordination of Defence checked with the Treasury and Foreign Office, and found that the Belgian Congo uranium was owned by the Union Minière du Haut Katanga company, whose British vice president, Lord Stonehaven, arranged a meeting with the president of the company, Edgar Sengier. Since Union Minière management were friendly towards Britain, it was not considered worthwhile to immediately acquire the uranium

Atomic story 2

Splitting the Atom

Well before WWII in the early 20th Century scientist were working on Nuclear (Atomic) Physics and chemistry.

The neutron was discovered by James Chadwick at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge in February 1932. In April 1932, his Cavendish colleagues John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton split lithium atoms with accelerated protons. Enrico Fermi and his team in Rome conducted experiments involving the bombardment of elements by slow neutrons, which produced heavier elements and isotopes. Then, in December 1938, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann at Hahn's laboratory in Berlin-Dahlem bombarded uranium with slowed neutrons, and discovered that barium had been produced, and therefore that the uranium nucleus had been split. Hahn wrote to his colleague Lise Meitner, who, with her nephew Otto Frisch, developed a theoretical justification for the process, which they published in Nature in 1939. By analogy with the division of biological cells, they named the process "fission".

The discovery of fission raised the possibility that a very powerful bomb could be produced. A few hundred pounds of say Uranium or so could produce an explosion the equivalent of many thousands of tons of high explosive. At this time no one was sure.

A very sinister story begins in WWII

i want to begin with how we think we have a "special relationship"

Legacy of WWII

I’m going to tell you story, a true story. What I can’t tell you, are the gaps! You see we only know actually what we are allowed to know. Unlike the USA we don’t have “Freedom of Information”. You might think so but we don’t. Although people don’t sign the Official Secrets act any more the reason is that they don’t have to, the Law still applies even if you haven’t signed it. It’s implicit.
Only certain documents have been declassified in Britain, many of them are “lost”, so can’t be shown any more (likely story, many have been destroyed, deliberately).
Anyway what we have are records of what did happen and if you add together what happened in US which is still documented and now declassified I think you can see the parallels and fill in the gaps. Actually I think that’s what science is about, you have a theory and adding up the evidence that you have you carry on finding evidence to prove your theory. It’s not Hype and hysteria it’s based on true facts and science. As I said I have a theory and you may agree with my conclusions. What we are left with is still unexplainable and in my opinion needs a thorough investigation by the relevant authorities and people. NOT a cover up.
If nothing else I think this is a fascinating story. Let’s start with some background, the development of Nuclear power and the Atom bomb.