John Wheeler's lost FBI file on hydrogen bomb secrets

[robphy]

"The FBI file of John Wheeler"
https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.4.20191203a/full/

"John Wheeler’s H-bomb blues"
https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.4364

"How the Nation’s Hydrogen Bomb Secrets Disappeared"
https://www.aip.org/news/2019/how-nation’s-hydrogen-bomb-secrets-disappeared

 

[Klystron]

While not directly concerned with John Wheeler, this recent New York Times article sheds more light on how the Soviet Union obtained classified materials during the Manhattan Project while allied with the United States.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/23/science/manhattan-project-atomic-spy.html

 

[gmax137]

Interesting story, isn't it? I mean, who hasn't lost things with never an explanation? But hydrogen bomb secrets -- in 1953? That takes the cake.

Wheeler has a brief discussion of this episode in his book "Geons, Black Holes & Quantum Foam." There he writes that the section of the report he had with him (and lost) was concerned with use of lithium-6 in the hydrogen bombs. He says we later learned that the Soviets already were on the same tack.