Questions of secrecy

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Talking to General Groves about an explosion

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Questions of secrecy

Edward Teller Scientist

	Views	Duration
71. Changing ideas about whether the hydrogen bomb could be made	348	05:46
72. A new secret laboratory at Los Alamos and working with Oppenheimer	448	02:48
73. Questioning the motivation and consequences of this work	378	06:12
74. An influence by Wigner and deciding to start a family	432	05:14
75. Problems with active material	303	04:42
76. John von Neumann suggesting an implosion	694	05:57
77. A difficult differential equation	505	03:09
78. Making sure that an even greater explosion would not be set off	358	05:17
79. A theory to increase the effectiveness of the explosion	298	04:32
80. Questions of secrecy	276	01:47

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One of the few physicists who were there was a very well known man, Tolman, and we came under serious attack: Did we give away too much? One of the points was, did not- did we not have to- did we have to tell on what element we were working? Wouldn't it be sufficient if we would say that Z=92? Well it did not take very long for me to explain that if I said the one thing I have said the other thing. But the amusing point about all of this was that in our being questioned a lot had been disclosed about the reactors that worked in Hanford and after the meeting when I took Maria to the railroad station she said- Well I really learned a great deal, very interesting what was said about reactors. Secrecy on occasion seemed to work against itself.

The late Hungarian-American physicist Edward Teller helped to develop the atomic bomb and provided the theoretical framework for the hydrogen bomb. During his long and sometimes controversial career he was a staunch advocate of nuclear power and also of a strong defence policy, calling for the development of advanced thermonuclear weapons.

Title: Questions of secrecy

Listeners: John H. Nuckolls

John H. Nuckolls was Director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1988 to 1994. He joined the Laboratory in 1955, 3 years after its establishment, with a masters degree in physics from Columbia. He rose to become the Laboratory's Associate Director for Physics before his appointment as Director in 1988.

Nuckolls, a laser fusion and nuclear weapons physicist, helped pioneer the use of computers to understand and simulate physics phenomena at extremes of temperature, density and short time scales. He is internationally recognised for his work in the development and control of nuclear explosions and as a pioneer in the development of laser fusion.

Duration: 1 minute, 48 seconds

Date story recorded: June 1996

Date story went live: 24 January 2008