MOSCOW

laa US go back 12 years. Mid-
™ January, 1939. The atten-
tion of physicists is fixed on a dis-
Covery made in some European
aboratories. The smallest atomic

» Particle — the neutron — having
collided with the nucleus of an
‘stom of a heavy metal—uranium
235—splits this nucleus into two
Parts, each of about the same size.
ollowing this, two or three neu-
trons escaps as “fragments” from
the interior of the affected nucleus.
€ach of these fragments were

to come into collision with neigh-
boring nuclei, a means of further
divisions would appear and @
chain reaction” would begin. All
the Nuclei of the piece of uran-
‘um would then be divided one
‘after another, and this process
Would lead to ithe release of
Rineteen and a half thousand mil-
Mion calories of heat from every

2.2 1b. of “disintegrating” sub-
Stance,

Preliminary research concern-
“08 this question was done simul-
taneously in several laboratories:
iis Paris (by Frederic Joliot Curie
the Radium Institute), in
“Copenhagen (O. Frisch, L,\Meit-
ner), in Leningrad, in Berlin (O.
Hahn, F. Strassman). At the tail

‘in

‘nd came the United States of -

Merica,

Let us remember this eloquent
fact. Let us remember that
American physics, hired by the
Monopolies, and caught as it
' Were in the vice of cut-throat
“Mpetition, shady business and
eer practicability, has en-

€d the world with little fun-
‘amental for half a century, de-

‘Spite the immense possibilities of.

° Powerful ‘organization.

‘The devilish plan to create the
mM bomb was elaborated just
hay the fascists invaded the Soviet

nion. “An appropriation of
37000 Was approved by the

fn at its meeting of July 18,
pee Wrote G.-D. Smyth in his
enous report, “and the proba-
lity that much larger expendi-
ure Would be necessary was in-
‘Gicateg »

We will not go into all the
Setails, By demagogy, deceit
apa Corruption, the atomic con-
Pirators attracted _ physicists,
fo cnc ticians and experimenters
con® United States in 1940-43. A

Msiderable group was composed
Sf anti-fascist. scientists. G. D.
/ Sa was obliged to emphasise
au leading role played by the
8toup of foreign-born physicists
“entering on L, Szilard and in-
‘luding &, Wigner, E. Teller, V-
an Weisskoph and E. Fermi.” As
ee the native-born American nu-
the. . Physicists, Smyth said of
" *m: “they hardly realised what
@ 2% be done.”

be nese scientists were told that
3 © first demonstration of the
,. 4X reaction would be enough
thao ims Germany and Japan to
cir knees,
mea Was a fraud, because the
Shen bombs, as
We wn by Professor Blackett,
re by no means intended for
ee fight against Nazism. Nor
fon they meant for the destruc-
ce of the Japanese war machine
in eh by the Soviet armies
Au he fields of Manchuria in
ade 1945). The atom bombs
agai Prepared for the “cold war”
a the Soviet Union, for
acing democratic humanity.
The tt was not the only fraud.
ove in the Manhatten project
not doubt that the basic
®m of aomic work after the
Utilizes the war would be the
a ation of atomic energy for
oa aims, This was also a
fraug And the result of this
a has been not only a trag-

; Prob],

b pyar Many eminent scientists

ot Sw tragedy for a whole branch

Cience,

convincingly .

Physicists who had gone to:

Cees

establish-

The first uranium
ment in the United States (Fer-
mi’s.pile) was made on December
2, 1942, by anti-fascist physicists
who emigrated to America, The

“experience of this work permits

the following deductions:

Firstly, the chain reaction can
be safely and easily regulated.

Secondly, the generation of
heat is such that it allows of the
possibility of using it industrially
in ordinary steam-turbine power
stations.

Finally, the by-product of a
chain reaction in natural uran-
ium is a new chemical substance
—plutonium which is able to emit
atomic energy anew. This
“breeding process” is the most
important of the properties of
atomic energentics. And pluto-
nium is formed, not at the ex-
pense of the initial fuel uranium
235, but at the expense of atoms
not taking part in the chain re-
action. When isolated in pure
form plutonium is not only an
explosive; in combination with a
delaying device, plutonium can
enter industrial cycles as nuclear
fuel. :

But this not all.

The nuclear “furnace” has
“ashes.” These valuable ashes -
are not less significant than the
fuel itself. The most promising
field of their application is in
medicine, physiology and syn-
thetic chemistry, where they open
a new chapter in the history of
science.

In spite of the fact that the
plutonium variant is the most
suitable from the point of view
of economics and technical pro-
gress, the significance of ‘this
variant has been grossly distort-
ed. Useful heat, produced in the
big plutonium plant at Hanford
is absurdly poured into the Col-
umbia River. All the valuable
plutonium is. atrophied in the
warheads of atom bombs. Fur-
thermore, .U 285 is increasingly
used in the same way.

The basic fact about U 235,
which is suitable for bringing
about atomic explosions, is that ®

\

OTT TE TE SE Te Ee Te Eee EE eT

Soviet
view of
the atom

By PROF. V. LVOV

its separation is an exceptionally
complicated and expensive pro-
cess. And its production, in con-
trast to plutonium, is not accom-
panied by the liberation of useful
heat. On the contrary energy is
used up in the most prodigious
manner. The production of U 235
is the production of atom bombs
and nothing more.

But just this makes U 235 the
darling of the Stock Exchange
magnates and the American mil-
itary. Nine-tenths of American
wartime expenditure on atomic
energy work went for U 235. The
development of the plutonium
variant was delayed. The whole
development of nuclear physics
was thereby impeded and its
perspectives distorted.

ts)

In the very first months of the
Manhatten atomic war machine,
the Washington government was
increasingly “consulting”  elec-
tricity, coal and metal magnates.
At the end of the war it handed
the machine over to them alto-
gether,

itself as the “proprietor” of

atomic plants, and finances them ~

at the expense of the taxpayers,
but the monopolists direct atomic
enterprises in the capacity of con-
tractors and directors. The profit
from the sale of atomic produc-
tion to the arsenals of death goes
into the coffers of Wall Street.

With the production of atom
bombs in their hands, the Wall
Street hawks also control the very
government organs that are sup-
posed to control them. Their net
also covers the uranium and thor-
ium mines of Canada and India,
Central Africa and Brazil, and is
thrown over the people studying
“pure science.” ;

The aim is td force science to
work for the mass destruction of
people, and to prevent atomic
physics from enriching © society
with new productive power.
e

Consciousness of the enormous
danger hanging over. science
causes more-and more foreign
scientists to join the peace camp.

.It.continues to regard. .

| large-scale

PRUETT TE UE EE RU TERETE GT eT TE He TY UP Ter Pv TOT ay Tuy ay 0 yt

A growing number of scientists is
beginning to understand where
the danger comes from.

Foremost among them is the
noble figure of Frederic Joliot-
Curie, who was dismissed from
his post as High Commissioner
of France for atomic energy.

From the platform of the War-
saw Congress in November, .1950,
the appeal of Professor Blackett’s
book The Military and Political
Consequences of Atomic Energy,
for physicists to renounce colla-
boration in the atomic plans of
imperialism, was strongly sup-
ported by one of the greatest
theoretical physicists of ‘our time,
Leopold Infeld.

But the main support of the
powers of peace — as Frederic
Joliot-Curie wrote recently — is
the scientific work in the field of
the atom that is being done in
the Soviet Union. ‘
t

The progressive French journ-
alist de Chambrun recently point-
ed out that the USSR’s posses-
sion of atomic energy upsets.not:
only the war calculations of the
wretched strategists of the Pen-
tagon Wall Street especially fears
peaceful industrial utilization of
atomic energy by the Soviet Un-
ion andthe countries friendly
with her. The incalculable re-
sources of the atom will acceler-
ate the rapid tempo of commun-.
ist construction so much; and so
reinforce the growth in the liy-
ing standards of the 800,000,000
free peoples, that the people of
the remaining part of the world
will not be able to avoid drawing
conclusions, ;

On September 25, 1949, TASS
confirmed that “the Soviet Union
had found out the secret of the
atomic weapon as early as 1947”
and that “it had this weapon at
its disposal.” Scientific circles in
the United States, the announce-
ment pointed out, considered
“that the Russians would not be
able to master the atomic Wweap-
on earlier than the year 1952.
However, they were mistaken.”
And TASS further announced:
‘In the Soviet Union, as is known:
construction works
are under way—construction of
hydro-electric power stations,
mines, canals, and roads—which
necessitate much blasting with
the application of the most up-
to-date technical means. .. . It
is possible that this might attract
attention beyond the boundaries
of the Soviet Union.”

The impression which this com-
munication caused among atomic
specialists of the U.S.A. deserves
serious consideration. Among
notable groups utter confusion
reigns. Even those who up to
now did not dare to open their
mouths are coming forward.,

The Nobel prizewinner, Enrico
Fermi (an emigrant from Italy
and builder of the first uranium
pile), and the former scientific
adviser to the government, James
Conant, came forward with criti-
cisms on police-fascist shadowing
in the laboratories and scientific

research institutes. They were
supported by a member of the
National Academy of Sciences,
Dr. Richards.

The order of January 31, 1950,
on preparation for the produc-
tion of the H-bomb brought new
anxiety to still wider groups of
American scientists.

On February 6, 1950, the Coun-
cil of the Federation of American
Scientists, under the presidency
of Hugh Wolfe, published a com-
munique, in which an appeal was
made to renounce this senseless
and dangerous act immediately.

On February 26 a number of
physicists met for a “round
table’ broadcast in Chicago. One
of them, Hans Bethe, author of
Many works on the thermo-nu-
clear reaction, who worked dur-
ing the war as chief consultant
for theoretical questions in the
Los Alamos atom bomb labora-
tory, and is far from a sympa-
thiser of the progressive camp,
said: “We can hardly expect to
have a monopoly of hydrogen
bombs. If we ever had any illu-
sions on this, the evénts of the
last months (Bethe has in mind

the TASS announcement) should “

have destroyed them.” “I would
guess,” declared. Professor Zeitz,
“they (Soviet scientists) are
working three times faster than
we are,

D. Lilienthal, former chairman
of the Atomic Energy’ Commis-
sion, commented on “the moun-
tainous error that bigger and. big-
ger bombs will make us safer and
safer.” “The security of this
country is not a material thing
but rather rests on the spirit of
the people . .. if we substitute

_+.. faith in weapons, we will be

weakened and lost no matter how
great our stockpile.” “The most
tragic part,” said Professor A.
Batcher, “is that the hydrogen
bomb won’t save us, and it isn’t
even a very good addition to our
military potential.”

As far as can be judged by
these quotations, more and more
American physicists have realis-
ed the simple and straight-for-
ward truth, recently expressed
by A. Y. Vishinsky: “For many
years they have set their hopes
on the atom bomb and they fail-
ed in this. Now they are setting
their hopes on the hydrogen
bomb, but one can say in advance:
you will fail here as well, gentle-
men.” (Speech at 'UNO, October
23, 1950.)

Yes, the atom concentrates in
itself the destiny of science, the
destiny of peaceful work, the des-
tiny of humanity.

The old world, having conceiv-
ed a science of the atom is un-
able to bring forth its fruit.

“The point is this, that...
the new content is ‘forced’ to
clothe itself for the time being
in the old form, which fact en-
genders a conflict between them.”
(J. V. Stalin.)

The new content is atomic en-
ergetics. The old form is im-
perialism. The general character
of atomic energetics has arrived
at a bitter, and catastrophic, con-
tradiction with the partial, but
rapaciqus, appropriation of its
products by monopoly capital.

The monstrous manifestation
of this contradiction is the wick-
edness of the atom bomb.

But this same atom is an in-
finitely greater power in the great
country of socialism than the
atom bomb in the stiffening
hands of the Washington canni-
bal. This power is a power of
peace, of progress, of happiness
created for humanity.

And if the cannibal lets the
bomb drop out of his-hands it
will explode at his feet.

He will not hear the explosion.

@ Professor Lvov’s article is
abridged from “The Atom
and Peace” which appeared
in the Leningrad monthly
magazine Zvezda for Decem-
ber, 1950.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — AUGUST 31, 1951 — PAGE 5