ATOM BOMB JESTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26617, 13 November 1947, Page 7

ATOM BOMB JESTS

RUSSIANS IN SIBERIA NO CHANCE OF IMMEDIATE MASS PRODUCTION LONDON, Nov. 11. John Griggs, the Moscow correspondent of the Paris newspaper L’lntransigeant, who earlier to-day reported the explosion in Siberia by Russia of its first test atom bomb on June 15, said that the explosion was felt over a radius of neariy 19 miles. The bomb, weighing about 131 b, “functioned perfectly.” The experts who witnessed the explosion returned to Moscow towards the end of June, and since then have been working in “ ultra-secrecy ” preparing reports for Mr Stalin. Mr Griggs asserted that he had “ ultra-confidential ” information that .the Soviet experts had conceded that i Russia was five years behind America jn atom bomb manufacture, j Mr Griggs reported that the witnesses of the tests included Colonelgeneral Andrei Zhdanov (one of the leaders of the Cominform), as Mr Stalin’s personal representative: Marshal Voroshilov, deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers; Marshal Bagramyan, member of the Supreme Soviet; and Serge Vavilov, Russian atomic research chief. Priority for Research The correspondent said; “Although the Russians have discovered the secret of exploding the bomb, they have not the smallest chance in the world of mass-producing it for the moment.” He added that atomic research held No. 1 priority under the new five-year plan. The Russians constructed several huge atomic industrial centres in Central Asia. They recently made important discoveries of radio-active ores in Uzbekistan, Karelia, the Urals, and near Lake Baikal. Four German nuclear fission experts working for the Russians were Dr Gustav Hertz, builder of the German cyclotron, Dr Robert Doepel, physicist from Leipzig, Dr Ludwig Bevilogua, and Professor Thiessen, formerly of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, Berlin. Outstanding Russian atomic research scientists were Professors Joffe, J. P. Flerov, K. Petrzhak, and Kzezhizhansky. Mass Production Attempted L’lntransigeant says that Mr Griggs’s informants stated that small bombs were made experimentally at a factory in a. city dubbed “Atombrad,” which had grown up in mushroom fashion in Siberia, where the Russians are attempting to mass-produce bombs. L’lntransigeant said the pseudonym, “John Griggs,” of the correspondent could not be clarified because the correspondent was still in Russia. It added that the writer was neither American nor British. The Frankfurt correspondent of the Associated Press says the Seismological Institute at Stuttgart University recorded “ two very distant earth tremors” on June 15, but the university spokesman doubted whether the bomb explosion caused them. Americans Not Impressed In Washington, scientists who were engaged in the preparation of the first atom bomb in the United States ridiculed the Paris report. The reasons for scorn are certain basic scientific inconsistencies in the Paris report. One scientist, who is acquainted with the actual weight of the American atom bomb, said it would be impossible to produce an atom bomb weighing only 131 b. It was impossible to make a rocket atom bomb because the weight had to reach a certain ■point in order to have the necessary critical mass of material. He also pointed out that the Paris story stated the detonation was heard about 20 miles away, but cannon fire

could be heard at that distance, and the original ,'atom bomb was heard clearly some 90 miles away. A bomb which could be heard only 20 miles away would be a very poor fizzle indeed. . ’ It is also pointed out in Washington that the atom bomb exploded in the area stated in the Paris report (near Irkutsk, Siberia) would have produced sufficient radio activity to register on the recording instruments of the United States authorities in Alaska and Japan. The radio-active cloud of the bomb exploded at New Mexico in 1945 was recorded in Washington, over 1000 miles away. It is believed the United States has strategically-located instruments which will inform it in a matter of hours whenever Russia should explode an atom bomb. Possibilities Explained A New York message says: The details in the Paris report that the Russians have a “ small ” atom bomb, and have successfully exploded it, all fall within the limits of the possibilities announced officially in the United States Smyth report and the British official report made a few days after the first bomb was dropped on Japan. One of these possibilities is that the Russian bomb, as described, is a true atom bomb, but what the official British report said could be made—namely, a “squib.” The British report said it was possible to get an explosion so imperfect that the detonation of the atom materials would be no) worse than that of some ordinary explosives. The'Paris report said the metal in the bomb weighs six kilogrammes. That comes within the ,lower limit set py the Smyth report, which said the minimum amount needed to explode is between 21b and 2001 b. The general impression has been that the Allied atom bombs used much more than six kilogrammes. The statement that the Russians are five years behind the Americans in production methods is open, apparently, to > only one interpretation—that it will be five years yet before the Russians are able to produce atom bomb mbtals in the quantities the United States is supposed to have.