Scientifically testing the calculations

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Tests to see whether the experiment worked

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Scientifically testing the calculations

Edward Teller Scientist

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102. President Truman's decision and other scientists' views on this	398	06:02
103. Ulam's calculations showed faults in our approach to the Hydrogen...	344	02:17
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106. Discussing the compression ideas with Ulam	354	02:16
107. Scientifically testing the calculations	271	02:04
108. Tests to see whether the experiment worked	263	02:50
109. Presenting the new ideas to the Atomic Energy Commission	257	05:02
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Now in actual fact, for the moment all that was not taken too seriously. We went to the Pacific. We tried and we did not test the real hydrogen bomb. We did test the booster, where thermonuclear reactions enhanced to a considerable extent the fission reactions; and we tested what seemed to me very important, the calculations of Johnny Wheeler, where we did not try to get thermonuclear reactions between the usual heavy hydrogen, deuterium and deuterium, but between heavy hydrogen deuterium and ultra heavy hydrogen tritium. That was sort of a model, not very practical in the end, because it would have required a lot of the ultra heavy hydrogen which was difficult to make. But the essential point is that this relatively easy case was calculated in detail and precisely by Johnny Wheeler and his people and we were testing whether our calculations were the right thing. And for the first time in these tests in 1951, we did not just try a model and find out did it work, yes or no, we tried something more scientific: was our procedure of calculation right?

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: Scientifically testing the calculations

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: 2 minutes, 5 seconds

Date story recorded: June 1996

Date story went live: 24 January 2008