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Nuclear Secrets

Nuclear Secrets is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Nuclear Secrets rather than just read about it. In short: Nuclear Secrets, aka Spies, Lies and the Superbomb, is a 2007 BBC Television docudrama series which looks at the race for nuclear supremacy from the Manhattan Project through to Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme. Production The series was produced by the BBC in co-production with National Geographic Society and NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk).

Nuclear Secrets — main illustration
Nuclear Secrets — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Nuclear Secrets belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Nuclear Secrets to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Nuclear Secrets from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Nuclear Secrets, aka Spies, Lies and the Superbomb, is a 2007 BBC Television docudrama series which looks at the race for nuclear supremacy from the Manhattan Project through to Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme.

Production The series was produced by the BBC in co-production with National Geographic Society and NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk).

Episodes

Episode one: The Spy From Moscow "Soviet Colonel Oleg Penkosky spied in the build-up to the gravest nuclear crisis of all time, when the world came close to annihilation." In 1960, Soviet Military Intelligence Officer Oleg Penkovsky passes a letter offering to share secrets with the U.S. Government to American students visiting Moscow, but Washington fails to respond. Penkovsky later passes a letter to British Trade Delegation representative Greville Wynne warning that Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev was planning an all-out nuclear attack. Penkovsky meets with MI6 officer Harry Shergold and Central Intelligence Agency agent Joe Bulik a short time later on a trip to London and warns that the Soviets have been arming Cuba. Penkovsky is instructed to gather info on missile strategy and is given British industrial secrets to help maintain his cover upon his return to Moscow. Chief Marshall Sergei Varentsov tells Penkovsky of plans to deploy battlefield nuclear weapons in Berlin. Penkovsky passes this along with other secrets that hardens U.S. President John F. Kennedy's stance against Khrushchev. KGB Lt-Gen Gribanov begins a surveillance sweep of Western embassy staff in Moscow, including Penkovsky's contact Janet Chisholm. Wynne returns to Moscow to make contact and Penkovsky requests that he and his family are pulled out. CIA Chief John McCone agrees but needs info on Cuba first. Penkovsky learns of the deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba but he is hospitalised before he can pass on the info. US surveillance photos reveal the build-up of missiles in Cuba that are identified from the materials previously supplied by Penkovsky. Penkovsky is arrested and confesses to Gribanov before signalling the Americans of an imminent Soviet attack in what Bulik suspects is an attempt to initiate a U.S. strike on Moscow. Penkovsky is convicted of spying and executed. At about 36:17 a map of Europe and the USSR is presented, which incorrectly shows Russia at its post-1991 borders instead of the Soviet Union in 1962.

Cast

Episode two: Superspy "1945, America prepares to unleash the most destructive weapon ever seen... a weapon of mass murder created by men of genius, but one is a communist spy." In 1944, Prof. Rudolf Peierls and his assistant Klaus Fuchs are summoned to Los Alamos National Laboratory to work on the Manhattan Project. Fuchs was a German refugee who had joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1932 to oppose the rise of Adolf Hitler and was now a Soviet spy. Project mastermind Robert Oppenheimer only had enough uranium 235 for one bomb and Peierls and Fuchs were brought in to work on weaponising plutonium. Cut off from his Soviet handlers Fuchs throws himself into his work until he is allowed to visit his sister, Kristel, in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he re-establishes contact. The Soviet head of atomic research Igor Kurchatov monitors the American progress through Fuchs. Following Nazi surrender Fuchs fears the weapon will be used against the USSR. Fuchs passes the details of the plutonium bomb, Fat Man, to his Soviet contact, Raymond. The project's tests are successful and the uranium bomb, Little Boy, is dropped on Hiroshima while Piles and Fuchs's Fatman is dropped on Nagasaki. In the aftermath Soviet premier Joseph Stalin orders Lavrentiy Beria to construct a Soviet plutonium bomb based on the Fatman plans supplied by Fuchs. Recalled to England, his adopted home, Fuchs returns with the nuclear secrets the U.S. is no longer willing to share. Fuchs passes the American secrets to the British as well. Fuchs begins to doubt Stalin's actions and decides to stop spying for Soviets, but it is too late as the Soviet Union detonates Joe 1. FBI agent Robert Lamphere identifies Fuchs from decoded Soviet signals and MI5 commence surveillance. British security officer Henry Arnold coaxes a confession out of Fuchs who admits to having spied for the Soviets since 1941. Fuchs was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Cast

Episode three: Superbomb "After the Second World War, America was looking forward to a bright Atomic future. As the only country with the atom bomb it felt secure. 29th of August 1949, the Soviets stun the world by exploding their own atom bomb. Suddenly the West itself was under threat. Edward Teller, a leading physicist from Hungary, believed the only way to save the world from Soviet Communism was to build an even bigger bomb, the hydrogen bomb, or Super." In 1950, Edward Teller briefs the team at Los Alamos National Laboratory about plans to construct a hydrogen bomb but U.S. Presidential Advisor Robert Oppenheimer opposes him. Oppenheimer is summoned to the White House to discuss whether Soviet spy Klaus Fuchs passed on info about the Super. Soviet Chairman Stalin instructs Andrei Sakharov to work under Beria on the Soviet hydrogen bomb project. U.S. Atomic Energy Commissioner Lewis Strauss supports Teller and U.S. President Harry S. Truman commissions the project. Kitty Oppenheimer fears her communist connections may compromise her husband and his moral objections to the project. Sakharov reviews Fuchs' info on Teller's Super but has his own plans for a simpler but less powerful bomb. Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Robert Lamphere gets Fuchs to confirm his contact was Harry Gold and this leads to the arrest of the Rosenbergs. Teller and Stanislaw Ulam find an ingenious solution to the problems with their design, which is successfully tested following Teller's resignation from the project. A power struggle in the USSR following the death of Stalin results in the downfall of Beria shortly before the testing of the Soviet H-bomb. Strauss orders the FBI to revoke Oppenheimer's security clearance under suspicion of spying for the Soviets. When U.S. testing runs out of control the American public are alerted to the power of this new weapon. Teller testifies against Oppenheimer at a security hearing and Strauss's objections are upheld. Sakharov becomes a leading dissident after civilians are killed in a Soviet bomb test.

Cast

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nuclear Secrets

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nuclear Secrets claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nuclear Secrets before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nuclear Secrets ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nuclear Secrets

In research
Nuclear Secrets appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Nuclear Secrets in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Nuclear Secrets is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2007 British television series debuts, 2007 British television series endings, 2007 English-language television series debuts, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Nuclear Secrets outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Nuclear Secrets in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Nuclear Secrets means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Nuclear Secrets out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nuclear Secrets in simple terms?

Nuclear Secrets, aka Spies, Lies and the Superbomb, is a 2007 BBC Television docudrama series which looks at the race for nuclear supremacy from the Manhattan Project through to Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme. Production The series was produced by the BBC in co-production with National Geogra…

Why does Nuclear Secrets matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nuclear Secrets?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nuclear Secrets.

Tags

  • 2007 British television series debuts
  • 2007 British television series endings
  • 2007 English-language television series debuts
  • 2007 English-language television series endings
  • BBC television docudramas
  • BBC television documentaries about history during the 20th Century
  • BBC television documentaries about history during the 21st Century
  • Cultural depictions of J. Robert Oppenheimer
  • Cultural depictions of Lavrentiy Beria
  • English-language British television shows
  • Films about nuclear war and weapons
  • Government of Pakistan secrecy

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