The Atomic Bomb Was STOLEN... Mostly

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." That's the line Robert Oppenheimer said came into his head as he watched the first atomic bomb go off, in July 1945. But watching the same flash was Klaus Fuchs, who six weeks earlier had handed the Soviets a description of that very bomb. Nine countries have the atomic bomb today, and almost none of them built it alone. The family tree of the bomb: the refugees, the British report and the Congolese uranium behind the Manhattan Project; the spies who stole it before it was built; Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the Soviet copy; Britain's bomb rebuilt from its scientists' heads and notebooks; France's blue jerboa; Israel's "textile plant" and the 1968 ship whose uranium went missing at sea; China's promised model bomb that sat in a railway carriage; India's "peaceful nuclear explosion"; A.Q. Khan's centrifuge shop and Libya's bomb plans in two tailor's shopping bags; North Korea's copy of a British reactor; and South Africa, the only country that built its own bombs and then took them apart. Death tolls are given as ranges: Hiroshima 90,000 to 166,000 and Nagasaki 60,000 to 80,000 by the end of 1945. Chapters 00:00 "Now I am become Death" 00:59 America's bomb wasn't born in America 02:23 The Manhattan Project 03:39 Stolen before it was built 04:55 Trinity and Potsdam: Stalin already knew 05:50 Hiroshima and Nagasaki 06:24 Nobody else gets one 06:49 The Soviet copy 08:18 Who told them? 08:57 Britain's bomb, from memory 09:57 Atoms for Peace 10:31 France builds its own 11:25 Israel: the textile plant and the missing ship 12:46 China and the bomb that never came 14:38 The fence goes up at five 15:10 India: a peaceful explosion 16:13 Pakistan and A.Q. Khan 18:01 Khan's shop and the Good Looks bags 20:00 North Korea, and the count 21:45 The one who gave it back Sources - Richard Rhodes, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" (1986) and "Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb" (1995) - Richard G. Hewlett and Oscar E. Anderson, "The New World, 1939-1946" (US Atomic Energy Commission, 1962) - Margaret Gowing, "Britain and Atomic Energy 1939-1945" (1964); Gowing and Lorna Arnold, "Independence and Deterrence" (1974) - David Holloway, "Stalin and the Bomb" (1994) - Susan Williams, "Spies in the Congo" (2016) - Radiation Effects Research Foundation, FAQ on the Hiroshima and Nagasaki death tolls: https://www.rerf.or.jp/en/faq/ - Central Intelligence Agency, Center for the Study of Intelligence, "CIA Missed Stalin's Bomb": https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/CIA-Missed-Stalins-Bomb.pdf - Shen Zhihua and Xia Yafeng, "Between Aid and Restriction: Changing Soviet Policies toward China's Nuclear Weapons Program, 1954-1960", NPIHP Working Paper 2 (Wilson Center, 2012) - Euratom statement on the missing uranium (Plumbat), 10 May 1977: https://aei.pitt.edu/11140/ - National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book 525, "The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II": https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/node/3393 - Avner Cohen, "Israel and the Bomb" (1998); National Security Archive, "The U.S. Discovery of Israel's Secret Nuclear Project" (2015): https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb510/ - Raj Chengappa, "Weapons of Peace" (2000); George Perkovich, "India's Nuclear Bomb" (1999) - Michael Laufer, "A.Q. Khan Nuclear Chronology", Carnegie Endowment (2005): https://carnegieendowment.org/europe/research/2005/09/a-q-khan-nuclear-chronology - Joby Warrick and Peter Slevin, "Libyan Arms Designs Traced Back to China", The Washington Post, 15 February 2004 - Arms Control Association, "Chronology of Libya's Disarmament and Relations with the United States": https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/chronology-libyas-disarmament-and-relations-united-states - Siegfried S. Hecker, reports on Yongbyon (Stanford CISAC) - South African History Online, "The dismantlement of South Africa's nuclear weapons": https://sahistory.org.za/af/article/dismantlement-south-africas-nuclear-weapons - Federation of American Scientists, "Status of World Nuclear Forces 2026": https://fas.org/initiative/status-world-nuclear-forces/ Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): "Unanswered Questions", "Covert Affair", "Teller of the Tales", "Hot Swing", "Marty Gots a Plan", "Spy Glass", "Comic Plodding", "Lobby Time", "Hall of the Mountain King", "Investigations", "Jaunty Gumption", "Wholesome", "Merry Go", "Hidden Past", "Guzheng City", "Jalandhar", "Sneaky Adventure", "Night on the Docks - Sax", "Mountain Emperor", "Long Road Ahead", "Salty Ditty". Sound effects: Kenney (kenney.nl) and Freesound contributors (CC0). Maps: Natural Earth (public domain).