Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon

Prologue-Part 1

Reading Check

1. Lise Meitner and her nephew, Otto Frisch (Chapter 2)

2. Albert Einstein (Chapter 3)

3. Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (Chapter 5)

4. Rapid Rupture (Chapter 5)

5. Norwegian Nazi leader Vidkun Quisling (Chapter 6)

6. The FBI (Chapter 7)

Short Answer

1. He’s alarmed by Hitler’s violent rise in Germany and his terrible treatment of the Jews. (Chapter 1)

2. Gold is grateful for the job he got from his Communist handler, and he thinks his spying won’t do any real harm. (Chapter 4)

3. Soviet scientists are too busy designing conventional weapons that can help fight off the German invasion. Also, the US is only a temporary ally that won’t trust the Soviets with an atomic bomb. (Chapter 7)

Part 2

Reading Check

1. Leslie Groves (Chapter 8)

2. Robert Oppenheimer (Chapter 8)

3. Inform Groves (Chapter 11)

4. A chain reaction (Chapter 13)

5. Graphite and cadmium (Chapter 13)

Short Answer

1. The plant produced heavy water for the German atom bomb project. (Chapter 9)

2. They crash-landed, and German forces killed all of them. (Chapter 10)

3. The location was remote, and it already had some buildings. (Chapter 12)

4. It proved that atomic fission produces energy. (Chapter 13)

Part 3

Reading Check

1. The gadget (Chapter 17)

2. Heavy water (Chapter 19)

3. Oak Ridge, Tennessee (Chapter 21)

4. Plutonium (Chapter 21)

Short Answer

1. There’ll only be enough U-235 for one bomb. Meanwhile, plutonium can be produced much more quickly than U-235, and it’s more powerful. (Chapter 21) 2. He believes that if two opposing countries both have the bomb, they won’t dare use it. (Chapter 24)

Part 4-Epilogue

Reading Check

1. Implosion bomb (Chapter 27)

2. Trinity (Chapter 29)

3. Gun assembly; uranium 235 (Chapter 32)

4. Enola Gay (Chapter 32)

5. Two (Chapters 33, 34)

6. 1949 (Chapter 37)

Short Answer

1. Heisenberg gives no sign that the Germans are close to completing their own atomic bomb. Alive, Heisenberg might prove vital to Allied efforts to understand Germany’s wartime technology. (Chapter 26)

2. They realize how devastating the new weapon can be, and how it could lead to the destruction of civilization. (Chapter 31)

3. He campaigns for nuclear disarmament, believing that an arms race might threaten the future of civilization. (Chapter 36)