Friction at the atomic level

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Readers younger than forty will have little or no memory of the Cold War, but for almost half a century the rivalry between the West and the Soviet Block dominated world politics. Probably the most disturbing aspect of this confrontation was the arms competition between the twomajor superpowers that stabilised with the development of socalled ‘mutually assured destruction’, a highly unsatisfactory state of affairs that remains with us today. The starting point for the nuclear arms race was the initial development of nuclear weapons by the USA, although this was of course not originally directed at the USSR at all, but towards Nazi Germany. Fortunately for them, the Germans were militarily defeated in the Spring of 1945 before the American nuclear bombs became ready a few months later. Stalin was not willing for the West to have a monopoly of nuclear weapons, needless to say, and already during the final years of the war Soviet nuclear scientists were studying possible ways of constructing them. After the European war ended, the Soviet impetus to build nuclear bombs largely paralleled what had taken place in the USA. The Soviets had their own equivalent of Los Alamos at a secretly located township, their own hastily developed nuclear reactor programme, and within a few years their own plutonium bomb. This was tested successfully at a remote desert site in 1949. Lee Pondrom here sets out the entire story of these events, and no aspect of the subject is left unexamined in this astonishingly comprehensive and extensively researched account. To understand the Soviet bomb story one must understand many other perspectives as well. These include the Manhattan Project itself, the nature and design of nuclear weapons, the development of nuclear physics in the USSR led by the outstandingly brilliant figure of Igor Kurchatov, and the Soviet political and social system. Stalin was the man at the top, of course, but behind him was the malign but coldly efficient personage of Lavrenty Beria, whose qualities of ruthlessness and crueltymatched those of Stalin. It was he who provided the political force behind the work of the scientists and technologists, and whomade sure that all the necessary enormous economic resources were made available for the success of the project. In relating all of this, Pondrom educates his readers with thoroughness into the physics of nuclear reactors and nuclear explosives, topics that are not always taught well in university physics courses. All this is presented in detail, along with a full account of how a plutonium bomb is actually constructed and operates. A series of Appendices to the main text cover these and a range of other technical topics, such basic nuclear physics, chain reactions, isotope separation, particle accelerators, and aspects of encryption and intelligence gathering. In the main text we also learn all about a number of westerners who provided espionage for the Soviets, perhaps speeding up their project by a year or so. The book should be easily understood by any student of physics, and in fact many physics students might be well advised to purchase it anyway, since the author’s expository style is exceptionally clear, and items are covered that many standard textbooks overlook. I myself now know precisely how a plutonium bomb works – at least the design that was used in the first models! In places, Pondrom’s concern for technical detail perhaps slightly gets the better of him, but it is probably good to have too much of this rather than too little. Information such as the precise dimensions of components of nuclear reactors may well be of interest to some readers. A basic knowledge of physics is certainly helpful while reading this material, but the non-physicist who is willing to pass over the more technical paragraphs will still be able to follow the course of the story. In general, Pondrom writes in an extremely engaging and down-to-earthmanner, and the book is often hard to put down. If you want to learn about how the West got the bomb, how the Russians got it, and all about the people, physics and political involvements, you will find everything here. This is the book to have, and it is likely to become a standard reference. It amounts to a great achievement on its author’s part, and I would recommend it in the strongest possible way. Even regarding theManhattan project, which has been dealt with by many other authors, this account is extremely informative and probably covers everything that many readers would wish to know. The book is well illustrated with maps and figures. The narrative closes with the first test explosion of the Soviet bomb in 1949. The further development of the hydrogen bomb is another story, not related in detail here although the physics and the context are described. It would be a matter for another book – more personages, more physics and more politics as the Soviet Union entered a new era after the death of Stalin in 1953 and the ColdWar intensified. After reading the present work one is also in a position to understand better how McCarthyism came to take root in theUSA. Let us hope that the lessons of the postWW2 arms race have been learnt by present political leaders – one sometimes wonders.