Q: Can you tell me about the beginning of the Soviet nuclear program?
DH: With the discovery of fission, just at the end of '38, the Soviet
physicists become extremely interested [in nuclear physics], and there is some
very good Soviet work on the theory of nuclear fission done by [Iulii] Khariton
and [Iakov] Zel'dovich, who later play key roles in the nuclear weapons
program...
[The Soviet scientists] certainly in '43, '44, they had a very good grasp of
the theoretical issues, but they had no chance of doing experimental work. So
a lot of the [espionage information] coming in was to say, well, these are the
kind of fission cross sections for uranium 235, or yes, this is -- we can
identify the chemical characteristics of plutonium, and these are the isotopes,
and these are the fission cross sections. This was stuff they could not find
out. They knew it was important, so when they began to get that information,
of course, they were very excited, and you know, began to understand, yes, a
bomb is a feasible thing, but they also understood in order to build it, you
needed to build up the whole industry that would give you the uranium ore and
the refine the ore, and you know, so on, so that you get the materials to work
with.
Q: You had said before that the flow of information of intelligence was
amazing. What was amazing about it?
DH: I think the detail. First of all, as far as we could tell, there was a
vast amount coming. But secondly, I think what is more amazing, is that they
were getting intelligence right from the point at which, if you had been given
your dearest wish, you would say this is where we want the intelligence to come
from.
back to Interview Transcripts
|
PBS Terms of Use Privacy Policy
Pledge Your Support
Stories to Go