The Pontecorvo affair : a cold war defection and nuclear physics / Simone Turchetti.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Turchetti, Simone.

Standardized Title:

Caso Pontecorvo. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pontekorvo, B. (Bruno), 1913-1993.

Pontekorvo, B.

Nuclear physicists--Italy--Biography.

Nuclear physicists.

Nuclear physicists--Soviet Union--Biography.

Spies--Italy--Biography.

Spies.

Spies--Soviet Union--Biography.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (300 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the fall of 1950, newspapers around the world reported that the Italian-born nuclear physicist Bruno Pontecorvo and his family had mysteriously disappeared while returning to Britain from a holiday trip. Because Pontecorvo was known to be an expert working for the UK Atomic Energy Research Establishment, this raised immediate concern for the safety of atomic secrets, especially when it became known in the following months that he had defected to the Soviet Union. Was Pontecorvo a spy? Did he know and pass sensitive information about the bomb to Soviet experts? At the time, nuclear scientists, security personnel, Western government officials, and journalists assessed the case, but their efforts were inconclusive and speculations quickly turned to silence. In the years since, some have downplayed Pontecorvo's knowledge of atomic weaponry, while others have claimed him as part of a spy ring that infiltrated the Manhattan Project. The Pontecorvo Affair draws from newly disclosed sources to challenge previous attempts to solve the case, offering a balanced and well-documented account of Pontecorvo, his activities, and his possible motivations for defecting. Along the way, Simone Turchetti reconsiders the place of nuclear physics and nuclear physicists in the twentieth century and reveals that as the discipline's promise of military and industrial uses came to the fore, so did the enforcement of new secrecy provisions on the few experts in the world specializing in its application.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction: The Silent Quake

1. The Training of a Nuclear Physicist

2. Neutrons for Peace and Neutrons for War

3. Under Surveillance

4. Ten Million Reasons to Disappear

5. Play It Up or Down? Confronting the Pontecorvo Affair

6. A Political Motive

7. Bruno Maximovich and Professor Pontecorvo

8. Conclusions: The Noisy Echo of Secrecy

Abbreviations

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9786613436849

9781283436847

1283436841

9780226816661

0226816664

OCLC:

773828580