Wikileaks Analysis Release: How Britain got its Bomb 
 
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2008 13:22:08 -0500 (CDT)


From: press@wikileaks.org

Wikileaks Analysis and Document Release

HOW BRITAIN GOT THE BOMB

The document the U.K. Foreign Office has asked Wikileaks to not let you 
read.

Britain's "Oppenhiemer", William G. Penney and his secret report on what 
Britain needed to do to "get the bomb".

-- Penney and the Start of the Post-War British Atomic Bomb Program --

William G. Penney, the father of the British atom bomb, spent most of 1944 
and 1945 at Los Alamos helping the United States build the first two 
atomic bomb. He formed part of the British Mission, an elite team of Los 
Alamos British scientists and emigres who contributed to the development, 
testing and use of atomic weapons. Penney, sent to Los Alamos as a 
specialist on ocean waves, soon found his gifts were readily apparent and 
he was made one of the five members of the Los Alamos "brain trust". The 
group made key decisions in the direction of the weapons program, putting 
him in the company of Robert Oppenheimer, John Von Neumann, "Deke" Parsons 
and Norman Ramsey. On 27 April 1945 Penney became one of only two 
representatives from Los Alamos (and the only Briton) to be part of the 
ten-man Target Committee responsible for drawing up a list of prospective 
Japanese atomic bomb sites. Penney travelled to Tinian Island in the 
Pacific to be on hand for planning and briefing the atomic bombing 
missions. Penney actually witnessed the bombing of Nagasaki, flying in an 
observation plane accompanying the attack. Afterwards he conducted damage 
surveys of the ruined city.

Penney returned to Imperial College immediately after the war, but 
accepted an appointment to head up the Armament Research Department (ARD) 
on 1 January 1946. On 8 January 1947 the secret GEN.163 Cabinet committee 
of six Ministers (headed by PM Attlee) decided to proceed with a British 
effort to acquire atomic weapons. Penney did not receive word of this 
decision until May 1947 when he was finally asked by Lord Portal to lead 
the British effort. The decision was not disclosed publicly in any respect 
until 12 May 1948, when an oblique reference was made to atomic weapon 
development in British parliamentary discussions.

In June 1947 Penney began assembling a team to work on the bomb. One of 
his first steps was to prepare a document describing the features of the 
U.S. plutonium implosion bomb, breaking down the development tasks 
required to replicate it, and identifying outstanding questions that 
required further research. The report, completed on 1 July, was entitled 
"Plutonium Weapon - General Description" (U.K, Public Record Office File 
AVIA 65/1163, "Implosion") and gave the British atomic weapons program a 
preliminary design description roughly equivalent in terms of detail to 
the description provided the Soviets by Klaus Fuchs.

..

See http://wikileaks.org/wiki/How_Britain_got_the_bomb for the full 
analysis and report.
_______________________________________________
  News mailing list News@lists.sunshinepress.org 
https://lists.wikileaks.org/mailman/listinfo/news 
http://wikileaks.be/wiki/Contact