Bomb Grade by Brian Freemantle Page A

have to be assembled, it would be helpful to know what those components are and how much is needed and your impression of the extent of the trade, if any, you’ve come to believe exists as the result of your investigations.’
    â€˜Colonel Scott’s report is restricted for the Cabinet,’ intruded Saxon.
    â€˜I’m not asking for Colonel Scott’s report,’ sighed Charlie. ‘I’m asking for his impressions. For which the mission’s return to London was delayed on London’s instructions, for me to be told.’ If this was the way it was going to be, working in the embassy really was going to be impossible, thought Charlie, catching the second tight-faced understanding between Saxon and Bowyer.
    â€˜We were taken to several installations in and around Gorkiy,’ recounted Scott, stiffly. ‘In my opinion the security was excellent. The Russian officials who accompanied us admitted they suspected isolated thefts of small amounts of nuclear material in the past but stressed the majority had been from the republics that once made up the Soviet Union, not from Russia itself.‘
    So the Cabinet and whoever else was on the mailing list were going to get a load of crap, judged Charlie. Which didn’t make this encounter at all a waste of time. He had his first report – a warning not to believe a word of Scott’s official account – for the Director-General and he’d only been in Moscow a few hours. Turning hopefully to the second man, Charlie said, ‘Let’s talk about amounts and the danger they represent.’
    The smile this time was gratitude, at being included. ‘What do you know about nuclear physics?’ asked Burton, innocently.
    â€˜Actually, not a lot,’ admitted Charlie.
    â€˜The explosive of a nuclear weapon is either uranium 235 or plutonium 239. Plutonium is actually created from uranium,’ said the man, settling back in his chair. ‘There’s two ways it can be exploded. It’s either surrounded by a tamper like beryllium oxide, which reflects neutrons and causes them to multiply when they’re compressed into what’s called a critical mass. Or two subcritical sections are driven together by what’s called a gun-barrel arrangement. Either splits the atom, creating a chain reaction of more and more split atoms, which releases an incredible amount of nuclear energy.’
    Scott, who’d obviously heard the lecture before, looked bored. Saxon sighed, equally unimpressed. Assholes, thought Charlie. ‘What’s the effect?’ he coaxed. ‘How many people can die?’
    â€˜There’s only been two practical examples, Hiroshima and Nagasaki,’ reminded Burton. ‘Hiroshima used uranium, exploded by the gun-barrel method. 80,000 people died and 70,000 were injured. Nagasaki used plutonium, with a beryllium tamper. That killed 40,000 people and wounded 25,000.’ The man hesitated. ‘They were tests, you understand? To see which method was the more effective.’
    No one was looking bored any more.
    â€˜How much uranium or plutonium is needed for bombs like that?’
    â€˜Technologies have greatly improved since 1945,’ said the physicist. ‘But below a certain amount there’s neutron leakage which reduces the effectiveness. The generally accepted critical mass is around five kilos.’
    â€˜Five kilos of uranium can kill 80,000 and five kilos of plutonium can kill 40,000 people!’ pressed Charlie, pedantically, determined totally to understand.
    â€˜At least,’ confirmed the expert.
    Charlie looked between the soldier and the scientist, momentarily – rarely – without words. One was a silly bugger who’d let himself be conned everything was safely under lock and key and the other existed in such a rarified atmosphere of pure physics that 80,000 and 40,000 were statistics, not death tolls, and who didn’t realize the