Evening star., 1950-08-07
Moving Toward the H-Bomb

In contracting with E. I. du Pont de Nemours
& Company to build and operate plants for the
production of the hydrogen bomb, the Atomic
Energy Commission has in effect indicated that
the possibility of manufacturing this most terrible
of all theoretical weapons though still "iffy," is
sufficiently promising to warrant large-scale
effort without further delay.
To that end, as the President has requested,
Congress is to provide an additional atomic fund
of $260,000,000 Most of this money is to be spent
on the construction of facilities to be located
on site covering about 100000 acres. Together
with the du Pont people, the Acc is now engaged
IN looking around for such site, the objective
being, among other things, to find one that is
least vulnerable to military attack and near
enough to existing population centers to avoid
the establishment of new government commu-
mites like those at Oak Ridge and Los AlamoS
The du Pont Company-wtich has agreed to
undertake this portentous project for 81 fee
is uniquely well equipped for the job, having
played key role in the wartime development
of A-weapons. The grim potentialities of the
enterprise can hardly be exaggerated For the
H-bomb, if it can be developed, will make the
Super-deadly atomic bomb seem mild by COM
parison. The latter will be merely trigger" of
sorts-the force heating up the heavy hydrogen
(deuterium and/or tritium) to point where the
hydrogen'S nuclei fuse and in the process of
fusion release energy of virtually indeScribable
deStructiveneSS.
Although the manufacture of deuterium and
tritium-which would constitute the explosive
heart of the weapon-appearS to involve no
extraordinary difficulties or COSTS some experts
are inclined to believe that the development of
the bomb itself may prove to be impossible. But
Senator Mcmahon, in his informed capacity as
chairman of the joint congressional committee
on the atom, has Somberly declared that "Scien-
lists feel more confident that this most horrible
of-armaments can be developed successfully than
they felt in 1910 when the original atomic bomb
was under consideration" at which time there
was more than little confidence.
Moreover, in Mr. McMahon's words, the
hydrogen development, assuming its success,
will be cheaper than its uranium forerunner
theoretically, it is without limit in destructive
capacity weapon made of such material would
destroy any military or other target, including
the largest city on earth" In short, If it is
produced it will represent as revolutionary and
ghastly an advance over the A-bomb as the
A-bomb represents over conventional explosives
a thing almost too preternaturally deadly for the
mind to visualize, but still thing that we seem
definitely to be moving toward.
Perhaps all of us ought to hope that no
group of men anywhere will ever be able to
produce such an instrument. But hope is one
thing, and hard reality another. And the hard
reality of our time, in world gravely menaced
by Soviet aggression, is that the survival of
ourselves and of free mankind as whole
demands that we do our best, as fast as possible,
to develop the H-bomb. We are in the most
fearSome armamentS race in history and if we
lose it, we are likely to lose everything That is
the sum of our situation.