Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon

Oppenheimer and Serber introduce the new scientists to the purpose of the program. Serber’s lecture is the first of several on the theory behind the atomic device. He keeps talking about the “bomb,” and, what with construction workers everywhere, Oppenheimer gets nervous. He has Serber stop saying “bomb.” Serber begins calling it a “gadget,” and the name sticks.

Fermi’s pile proved that uranium releases energy, but getting the material to release it all at once remains a problem. One idea is to load uranium into one end of an adapted artillery piece, a “gun assembly,” and fire another batch of uranium into it. This would create a critical mass that would start a chain reaction. Each neutron released is strong enough to make a grain of sand jump; trillions of such reactions all at once would cause an explosion equal to millions of pounds of dynamite. The scientists’ job is to figure out how much uranium this requires, how fast it has to be fired, how much—and what type—of metal is needed to encase the gadget and sustain its chain reaction, the size of the ensuing explosion, and so forth.

Construction debris litters the compound, which is surrounded by a high fence. Oppenheimer is advised not to fly in planes, to use cars sparingly, and to retain a guard when outside Los Alamos. Groves doesn’t want him injured or killed; additionally, Army intelligence still believes Oppenheimer might be a Soviet spy and wants him watched at all times. Operatives listen in on his residence and phone calls; his driver is an agent. Oppenheimer senses he’s being surveilled, but he doesn’t realize how thorough it is. 

By the spring of 1943, the Soviets have halted the German advance, but the battle still rages, and they urge the US to invade Europe and force the Nazis to divert their forces. The US, fully engaged in the Pacific against Japan and already pushing north through Fascist Italy, will spend another year preparing for the big attack on Germany.

Army intelligence, bent on preventing the atomic bomb plans from falling into Soviet (or worse, German) hands, continues to spy on Oppenheimer. They watch him meet in San Francisco with an old girlfriend, Jean Tatlock, who belongs to the Communist Party. The couple spends the night at her apartment. Colonel Boris Pash reports this to General Groves and asks him to pull Oppenheimer from the atom program. Groves, believing in Oppenheimer’s loyalty and reasoning that firing Oppenheimer would set the project back by several months, declares the scientist “irreplaceable” and denies the request.

Undeterred, Army agents warn Oppenheimer against seeing his “questionable friends” and announce that they’ll be following him. Alarmed, Oppenheimer clears the air by informing Colonel Pash about Chevalier’s attempt to turn him into a spy for Russia. This confession merely worsens Colonel Pash’s opinion of Oppenheimer. He reports the conversation to Groves, who again defends the Los Alamos boss.

The Soviets finally start up their own atomic bomb program, “Laboratory Number 2” (106), just outside Moscow and led by physicist Igor Kurchatov. Evidence provided by Klaus Fuchs in England shows that a finished weapon is possible in a short time, but the Russians need more information about the American effort. Their big break comes when Oppenheimer, searching for more scientists to help with the difficult calculations, gets England to send some of its physicists. Among them is Klaus Fuchs. Sam Semyonov contacts Harry Gold, whose new assignment will be his most important yet.

Within months of the Norwegian commando raid against Vemork, the plant’s heavy-water machinery is up and running again. In November 1943, Allied bombers attack the plant, but most of the bombs miss, and the heavy-water equipment is unharmed. Still, the Germans realize they’ll be under attack there continuously, so they load up the last of the heavy water—the largest shipment ever—and prepare to ship it to Germany.

Groves directs that the shipment be destroyed. Haukelid, hiding out in the wilderness, gets new orders. He and another commando meet in Rjukan with a Norwegian informant from the plant, who explains that 40 barrels of heavy water, closely guarded, will leave the plant by rail, travel down a long lake on a ferry, continue by train to the coast, and get shipped to Germany.

The one weak link is the ferry. Haukelid buys a ticket on the Hydro and reckons that the ferry will be over the deepest part of the lake, 1,300 feet down, at the 30-minute point. With two other saboteurs, Haukelid climbs aboard the poorly guarded ferry late at night, sneaks down to the bilge, sets plastic explosive and timers against the inside of the boat’s bow, and sneaks back out.

The next morning, water shipment railcars roll onto the ferry. Carrying 53 people, the Hydro sets off down the lake. Thirty minutes in, the explosive detonates, the ferry noses down into the water, and the passengers and crew abandon ship. The craft disappears in less than four minutes.

Haukelid reads in a newspaper that the ferry sank, killing 27. He crosses into Sweden and then returns to Norway to continue the underground fight against the Nazis.

The German bomb-making effort remains shrouded in secrecy; thus, the danger persists. It’s likely that Werner Heisenberg, one of the world’s most important atomic physicists, leads the program. Groves requests guidance from Army Chief of Staff George Marshall on the feasibility of kidnapping the great scientist. Marshall replies, “Tell Groves to take care of his own dirty work” (116-17).

Groves sends for Colonel Carl Eifler, a very tough-minded man who’s busy in Southeast Asia sabotaging the enemy as part of the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS, the forerunner of the CIA). Back in Washington, Eifler is informed of the race to build a new bomb and asked if he can kidnap Heisenberg. He answers, “When do I start?” (118). He meets with top-level OSS officers, saying he’ll enter Germany from neutral Switzerland, kidnap Heisenberg, and bring him back to Swiss territory. He’s told that he and the scientist will be flown out to sea and dropped to a waiting submarine for the return to Washington. If the Swiss police catch him, he is to kill Heisenberg and not expect rescue: “[…] [W]e’ve never heard of you” (119).

Despite coughing jags and weight loss from chain-smoking, Oppenheimer keeps tabs on everything that’s going on at Los Alamos. He absorbs 20-page technical papers in five minutes. His scientists admire him for his ability to make them feel smarter and reach higher than they thought possible. “He brought out the best in all of us,” says physicist Hans Bethe (121).

One young scientist, Richard Feynman, has a keen sense of mischief. He has his family write to him in code so he can figure it out. This drives Army censors to distraction. He also discovers that the file cabinet padlocks are easy to pick, and he breaks into colleagues’ cabinets and reads their latest reports. General Groves is not amused, but Oppenheimer cuts Feynman some slack as one of the smartest people at Los Alamos.

Oppenheimer keeps Feynman busy with an important job: checking the safety of the new uranium processing plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The thousands of workers there, including technical people, aren’t privy to the secrets of uranium bombs; they could make a mistake and cause an explosion. Feynman goes to the plant, but an Army colonel initially prevents him from presenting his findings to plant officials. Feynman explains that they need to know for safety’s sake, but the colonel remains adamant. Feynman therefore repeats what Oppenheimer instructed him to say in this event: “Los Alamos cannot accept responsibility for the safety of the Oak Ridge plant!” (123) The colonel relents; Feynman fills in the directors. He explains how to be careful with U-235, the isotope of uranium that fissions, so that it doesn’t accidentally go critical and blow up.

Extracting U-235 is a slow process, so General Groves orders a new production facility in Hanford, Washington, that will produce plutonium—a fissionable element created when U-238 is bombarded by neutrons. Now two types of material will be available for use in atomic bombs.

Across the country, in total secrecy, 300,000 people work for the Manhattan Project. Missouri Senator Harry Truman notices the high government spending and begins to look into it. War Secretary Henry Stimson visits Truman, telling him the program is “the greatest project in the history of the world” and revealed only on a “strictly need-to-know basis” (125). Truman agrees to back off, but he still pokes around, to Stimson’s annoyance.

In New York City, wearing gloves and holding another pair as a signal, Harry Gold meets a man holding a tennis ball. Gold asks a question, and the other man answers it correctly. The other man is Klaus Fuchs. The two arrange further meetings, during which Fuchs fills Gold in on what he knows about the Manhattan Project. Gold writes up reports and gives them to his new handler, “John,” or Anatoly Yatzkov (Sam Semyonov is under close FBI surveillance and must bow out of the Fuchs operation). Soon Gold has documents stolen by Fuchs to give to John. The Soviets are thrilled.

After several meetings and handoffs, Fuchs fails to show up. He also doesn’t show for a backup meeting. Gold goes to Fuchs’s workplace with a book that he says he borrowed from Fuchs and needs to return. A woman cleaning the lobby says Fuchs left suddenly and with no word. Gold reports the disappearance. The Soviets are angry.

Ted Hall attends Harvard at age 14. When he’s 18 and about to graduate in physics, a scientist meets with him and recruits him for a top-secret project. Hall returns to his dorm and chats with another recruit, Saville Sax, a “dedicated Communist” who urges Hall, a Communist sympathizer, to tell the Russians if the work turns out to be a weapons project that’s “really awful.” Hall rejects the idea flat out. He goes to work at Los Alamos.

Plutonium fissions much faster than uranium. This means the gun-assembly bomb won’t work because the plutonium will start to explode before a wad of it, fired at a larger wad, fully penetrates. Meanwhile, there’s only enough U-235 to create one bomb in the near future. The team needs a new bomb design.

Hall, the youngest scientist at Los Alamos, begins work on plutonium. In his free time, he wonders if the US should be the only country with an atomic bomb. He decides it would be better if Russia also has the bomb, reasoning that neither side would then dare to use one.

Hall gets two weeks’ leave and returns to New York to visit family. He also visits Saville Sax; they discuss how to get Hall’s info into Soviet hands. They decide that Hall will approach a Russian import-export business and put out feelers. The company he chooses does indeed serve as cover for many spies. Hall gets the name of a Russian journalist, Sergei Kurnakov.

Hall meets Kurnakov, tells him about Los Alamos, and presents him with a paper he has prepared that explains what the Americans have learned about atomic power. Though suspicious about a pimply-faced boy coming to him, Kurnakov gambles and accepts the paper. Some days later, they meet again and agree to use Sax as a courier. The Soviets now have their inside man at Los Alamos.

Gold and Yatzkov, meanwhile, struggle to locate Fuchs. Gold visits Fuchs’s sister, another Communist sympathizer, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She reports that her brother has been relocated to the southwestern US. In fact, Fuchs’s entire group moved from New York to Los Alamos. There, Fuchs proves a hardworking, productive asset. He keeps largely to himself; though friendly, he’s reserved, and others sense “something more” but can’t guess at it. Hans Bethe says, “If he was a spy, he played his role beautifully” (144).