Abstract
1955 began with the Defence White Paper that announced the Government’s decision about the H-bomb. Aldermaston was then charged with developing megaton bombs (not necessarily the same thing — chapter 5). The first priority was a 1–megaton device of the boosted Type A, which was the simpler solution. The more powerful and more difficult Type B — an H-bomb, whatever that might be — was a deferred possibility. A test of Type A was expected in 1957; of Type B, in 1958 or later, perhaps even 1960. These priorities were open to review if the difficulties of Type B could be resolved.1
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Notes and References
A Service opinion expressed by Sir William Dixon was that, in any case, it seemed improbable that Type B, as then envisaged, could be used effectively as a strategic weapon.
The potential of lithium deutende had been remarked on early in 1953 by Aldermaston chemist D. T. Lewis but was more or less ignored. Joe 4 confirmed its importance.
See Appendix 5.
It is not clear when the name Green Granite first came into use, or exactly what it denoted originally. Granite was the word associated with a double bomb device but may not have been so when first used.
J. B. Taylor came to Aldermaston in Aug. 1955 so that meeting cannot have been earlier.
Interview Ward/Arnold 24 Aug. 1995. See also Appendix 5.
There was apparently no record of this meeting, and we do not know the precise date. This account is based on information from Dr Corner, Dr Pike and Dr Allen.
Interview Allen/Arnold, 30 Apr. 1993 and conversation 26 June 1995.
Letter Pike/Arnold, 9 June 1995.
No record appears to exist. We are dependent on the memory of Dr Ward (see Appendix 5) and of Dr Corner, who remembered the blackboard drawing as showing a staged device which appeared to use radiation implosion of a spherical secondary.
In particular, a great deal of complex computation is required.
At the Mosaic test (2 shots) off the NW coast of Australia in May 1956. See Arnold, A Very Special Relationship, ch. 7.
TPN 123/55. TPN stood for Theoretical Physics Division Note; many ‘notes’ were big reports of 50 pages or so.
No record of the colloquium has been found so far.
Uranium-233, 234, 235, 236 and 238.
This was a Nuclear Physics Branch Note, NPBN 56/1 of 14 February 1956.
This was a transcript of the hearings, ‘in the matter of J Robert Oppenheimer’, by the United States Atomic Energy Commission (USAEC) Personnel Security Board, 12 Apr.–6 May 1954. A vast amount of scientific evidence was taken.
This was not the design used for the Granites fired at Grapple (they had many shells in Dick) but seems to resemble the simpler Grapple X device (see Chapters 10 and 11).
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© 2001 The Ministry of Defence
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Arnold, L., Pyne, K. (2001). The Megaton Mission. In: Britain and the H-Bomb. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230599772_7
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