Wales and the Bomb

John Baylis

Description

The main focus of this book is on the contribution of Welsh scientists, engineers and facilities in Wales to the British nuclear programme – especially the military programme – from the Second World War through to the present day. After the war, a number of Welsh scientists at Harwell played an important role in the development of civil nuclear power, and subsequently also at Aldermaston where Welsh scientists and engineers were a key part of William Penney’s team producing the first UK nuclear device tested at Monte Bello in 1952. This book highlights the scientific and engineering contribution made by Welsh scientists and engineers, and, where possible, it considers their backgrounds, education, personalities and interests. Many, for example, were sons of miners from the Welsh valleys, whose lives were changed by their teachers and education at Wales’s university institutions – which responds in part to the question, ‘Why so many Welshmen?’

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Wales and the Wartime Origins of Atomic Energy
3. The UK Nuclear Programme in the 1940s to the 1960s
4. The Role of Welsh Scientists and Engineers in the Early UK Nuclear Programme
5. The UK Nuclear Programme from Chevaline to Trident
6. The Involvement of Welsh Scientists and Engineers in the UK Nuclear Programme from the late 1960s to the Present Day
7. Conclusions

Sujets

• Histoire
• Great Britain
• History
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 09 janvier 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781786833617
• Langue: English

Extrait

Wales and the Bomb
Series Editor Gareth Ffowc Roberts Bangor University
Editorial Panel Iwan Rhys Morus Aberystwyth University
John V. Tucker Swansea University
Wales and the Bomb
THE ROLE OF WELSH SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS IN THE BRITISH NUCLEAR PROGRAMME
JOHN BAYLIS
© John Baylis, 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press, University Registry, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3NS.
www.uwp.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-78683-359-4
eISBN 978-1-78683-361-7
The right of John Baylis to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77, 78 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The publisher acknowledges the financial support of the Welsh Books Council.

The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Cover image: Grapple 2, Orange Herald nuclear test (31 May 1957). Image source: Alamy.
This book is dedicated to Marion for her love and support over more than fifty years
CONTENTS
Series Editor’s Foreword
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Preface
1 Introduction
2 Wales and the Wartime Origins of Atomic Energy
3 The British Nuclear Programme from the 1940s to the 1960s
4 The Role of Welsh Scientists and Engineers in the Early British Nuclear Programme
5 The British Nuclear Programme from Chevaline to Trident
6 The Involvement of Welsh Scientists and Engineers in the British Nuclear Programme from the 1960s to the Present Day
7 Conclusion
Notes
Appendix 1: Welsh scientists and engineers involved in the Atomic Energy Programme
Appendix 2: The Duff-Mason Report
Select Bibliography
SERIES EDITOR’S FOREWORD
W ales has a long and important history of contributions to scientific and technological discovery and innovation stretching from the Middle Ages to the present day. From medieval scholars to contemporary scientists and engineers, Welsh individuals have been at the forefront of efforts to understand and control the world around us. For much of Welsh history, science has played a key role in Welsh culture: bards drew on scientific ideas in their poetry; renaissance gentlemen devoted themselves to natural history; the leaders of early Welsh Methodism filled their hymns with scientific references. During the nineteenth century, scientific societies flourished and Wales was transformed by engineering and technology. In the twentieth century the work of Welsh scientists continued to influence developments in their fields.
Much of this exciting and vibrant Welsh scientific history has now disappeared from historical memory. The aim of the Scientists of Wales series is to resurrect the role of science and technology in Welsh history. Its volumes trace the careers and achievements of Welsh investigators, setting their work within their cultural contexts. They demonstrate how scientists and engineers have contributed to the making of modern Wales as well as showing the ways in which Wales has played a crucial role in the emergence of modern science and engineering.
RHAGAIR GOLYGYDD Y GYFRES
O ’r Oesoedd Canol hyd heddiw, mae gan Gymru hanes hir a phwysig o gyfrannu at ddarganfyddiadau a menter gwyddonol a thechnolegol. O’r ysgolheigion cynharaf i wyddonwyr a pheirianwyr cyfoes, mae Cymry wedi bod yn flaenllaw yn yr ymdrech i ddeall a rheoli’r byd o’n cwmpas. Mae gwyddoniaeth wedi chwarae rôl allweddol o fewn diwylliant Cymreig am ran helaeth o hanes Cymru: arferai’r beirdd llys dynnu ar syniadau gwyddonol yn eu barddoniaeth; roedd gan wŷr y Dadeni ddiddordeb brwd yn y gwyddorau naturiol; ac roedd emynau arweinwyr cynnar Methodistiaeth Gymreig yn llawn cyfeiriadau gwyddonol. Blodeuodd cymdeithasau gwyddonol yn ystod y bedwaredd ganrif ar bymtheg, a thrawsffurfiwyd Cymru gan beirianneg a thechnoleg. Ac, yn ogystal, bu gwyddonwyr Cymreig yn ddylanwadol mewn sawl maes gwyddonol a thechnolegol yn yr ugeinfed ganrif.
Mae llawer o’r hanes gwyddonol Cymreig cyffrous yma wedi hen ddiflannu. Amcan cyfres Gwyddonwyr Cymru yw i danlinellu cyfraniad gwyddoniaeth a thechnoleg yn hanes Cymru, â’i chyfrolau’n olrhain gyrfaoedd a champau gwyddonwyr Cymreig gan osod eu gwaith yn ei gyd-destun diwylliannol. Trwy ddangos sut y cyfrannodd gwyddonwyr a pheirianwyr at greu’r Gymru fodern, dadlennir hefyd sut y mae Cymru wedi chwarae rhan hanfodol yn natblygiad gwyddoniaeth a pheirianneg fodern.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1 The Gaseous Diffusion Process (by permission of Brian Burnell)
Figure 2 Arthur Llewelyn Hughes (by permission of Washington University, St Louis, USA)
Figure 3 Atomic device (by permission of Alex Wellerstein)
Figure 4 Thermonuclear device (by permission of Brian Burnell)
Figure 5 Ieuan Maddock (by permission of The Royal Society)
Figure 6 Chevaline (by permission of Brian Burnell)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am very grateful to a number of people and institutions who have helped at various stages to bring this book to fruition. I owe a great debt to Professor John Tucker of Swansea University. Having written a paper for the Learned Society of Wales (LSW) on the topic covered by the book, Professor Tucker, in his capacity as the history of science and technology coordinator of the LSW, provided great encouragement to turn the paper into a book for the Scientists of Wales series. Professor Tucker also helped to secure some funding towards the publication of the book. In particular, I would like to thank the Learned Society of Wales, the South Wales Institute of Engineers Educational Trust, Swansea University, and the Welsh Books Council for very generously providing the financial support without which it would not have been possible for the book to have been published.
I am also grateful to Dr Richard Moore who helped set up interviews with some Welsh scientists at Aldermaston and to Dr Kristan Stoddart for allowing me to use some of the material from joint research that was included in two articles published in the journal Diplomacy and Statecraft . There are a number of images included in the book and I would like to thank the following for permissions to reproduce the photographs, tables and diagrams: The Royal Society; English Public Health; and Washington University in St Louis, USA. I am particularly grateful to Brian Burnell for making a number of drawings specifically for me that are included in the book. I would also like to thank Alwyn Davies, Alex Wellerstein, Jane Hughes, Barbara Jones, Professor Mike Charlton, Dr Colin Barber and Professor Len Scott for invaluable information and advice at various times during the writing of this book. Finally, my thanks go to Llion Wigley and Dafydd Jones of the University of Wales Press for all their help and assistance at various stages in the publication of the book.
PREFACE
N uclear weapons pose very difficult ethical, scientific, engineering and industrial problems. Given the continuing contemporary debate about the utility or otherwise of nuclear weapons, it is interesting to look back at the evolution of the British nuclear programme. It is a fascinating story in which Wales, and some of its leading scientists and engineers, played a significant role in developing atomic and later thermonuclear weapons. For some this may be a surprise given that anti-establishment feelings and pacifism have traditionally been strong forces in Welsh nonconformity and radicalism, especially amongst members of the Welsh nationalist movement. 1 For others this is less of a surprise given the support for nuclear weapons in sectors of the Labour Party and an undercurrent of conservative values in Welsh society more generally. 2
My interest in this subject began in the late 1980s when I attended the inaugural meeting of the British Nuclear History Programme. At that meeting I met for the first time the two official historians of the British nuclear weapons programme, Professor Margaret Gowing and Lorna Arnold. In conversation Professor Gowing noticed my accent and asked if I was Welsh. I said I was and she said that from her research she had been surprised by how many Welsh scientists and engineers had been involved in the early atomic energy programme. She suggested that this was something that deserved further research. Over the years I got to know Lorna Arnold well and in conference meetings and fairly regular telephone conversations we discussed aspects of the British nuclear programme and she often raised the issue of the role of Welsh scientists and engineers.
As part of the nuclear history programme I wrote a book for Oxford University Press entitled Ambiguity and Deterrence: British Nuclear Strategy 1945–1964 in which I tried to follow the example of Margaret Gowing and Lorna Arnold in their publications in dealing with some of the key personalities in the British nuclear programme. 3 After the publication of this book Lorna Arnold encouraged me once again to do some further work on the role of Welsh scientists and engineers in the programme. At the time, however, I was more interested in the wider British nuclear programme and the politics, strategy and ethics of nuclear weapons more generally. As time went on I also became more involved with university administration whi