Nuclear Espionage: Shadow Games, Unraveling the Atomic Web

By Fouad Sabry

What is Nuclear Espionage

Nuclear espionage is the purposeful giving of state secrets regarding nuclear weapons to other states without authorization (espionage). There have been many cases of known nuclear espionage throughout the history of nuclear weapons and many cases of suspected or alleged espionage. Because nuclear weapons are generally considered one of the most important of state secrets, all nations with nuclear weapons have strict restrictions against the giving of information relating to nuclear weapon design, stockpiles, delivery systems, and deployment. States are also limited in their ability to make public the information regarding nuclear weapons by non-proliferation agreements.

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Nuclear espionage

Chapter 2: Industrial espionage

Chapter 3: Klaus Fuchs

Chapter 4: Cold War espionage

Chapter 5: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

Chapter 6: David Greenglass

Chapter 7: Perseus (spy)

Chapter 8: Atomic spies

Chapter 9: Cyberwarfare

Chapter 10: Arnold Kramish

(II) Answering the public top questions about nuclear espionage.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Nuclear Espionage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Jun 20, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: Nuclear espionage

In the context of nuclear espionage, the act of intentionally and without authorization divulging state secrets concerning nuclear weapons to other governments is considered to be espionage. Throughout the history of nuclear weapons, there have been numerous instances of acknowledged nuclear espionage, as well as other instances of espionage that have been speculated or alleged to have occurred. All countries that possess nuclear weapons have stringent limitations against the disclosure of information concerning the design of nuclear weapons, stockpiles of nuclear weapons, delivery systems for nuclear weapons, and deployment of nuclear weapons. This is due to the fact that nuclear weapons are typically considered to be extremely vital state secrets. In addition, the authority of states to disclose information concerning nuclear weapons to the general public is restricted under non-proliferation agreements.

Throughout the course of the Manhattan Project, which was a collaborative effort between the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and Canada to develop the first nuclear weapons during World War II, there were numerous instances of nuclear espionage. These instances involved scientists or technicians working on the project transmitting information to the Soviet Union regarding the development and design of bombs. The term atomic spies is frequently used to describe to these individuals, and their work extended far into the early stages of the Cold War. Due to the fact that the majority of these cases became well-known during the anti-Communist era of the 1950s, there has been a long-standing dispute over the specific details of these cases. However, some of this dispute was resolved with the public release of the Venona project transcripts, which were intercepted and decrypted messages between Soviet agents and the Soviet government. However, there are still certain difficulties that have not been resolved.

The ones that stood out the most among these were::

Klaus Fuchs was a theoretical physicist who was a refugee from Germany and served with the British delegation at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. He ultimately came to light, admitted his guilt, and was sentenced to incarceration in the United Kingdom. Later on, he was granted his freedom, and he eventually moved to East Germany. Because of his vast technical understanding and his direct connection to many elements of project activity, he is considered to have been the most valuable of the Atomic Spies in terms of the information he provided to the Soviet Union regarding the American fission bomb development. This is because he was able to provide his information to the Soviet Union. Additionally, he provided early knowledge regarding the American hydrogen bomb development; however, due to the fact that he was not present at the discovery of the Teller-Ulam design, it is believed that his information regarding this subject was not of great importance.

Theodore Hall was a young American physicist who worked at Los Alamos State Laboratory. It was not until the very end of the 20th century that his true identity as a spy was disclosed. It appears that he revealed to his involvement in espionage in later years to reporters and to his family, despite the fact that he was never arrested in connection with his operation.

During the Manhattan Project, David Greenglass, an American machinist, worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Greenglass admitted that he had provided the Russians with rough blueprints of laboratory tests that he had conducted during World War II. After further investigation, it has been determined that several portions of his testimony against his sister and brother-in-law, the Rosenbergs (for more information, see below), were manufactured in an effort to protect his own wife from being prosecuted. Greenglass admitted to his involvement in espionage and was sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence.

A Belarusian emigrant family returned to the Soviet Union, where George Koval was conscripted into the Red Army and recruited into the GRU intelligence service. George Koval was born in the United States of America to people who had emigrated from Belarus. Following his infiltration into the United States Army, he was assigned to the Special Engineering Detachment as a radiation health officer. Through the use of the code name DELMAR, he was able to get information from Oak Ridge and the Dayton Project regarding the Urchin (detonator) that was utilized on the Fat Man plutonium bomb. It was not until Vladimir Putin posthumously honored him as a hero of the Russian Federation in 2007 that his work was brought to the attention of westerners.

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were American citizens who were allegedly involved in the coordination and recruitment of an espionage network that included David Greenglass. Despite the fact that the majority of academics are of the opinion that Julius was probably participating in some kind of network, it is still unclear whether or not Ethel was active in the activities or was aware of them. Sing Sing Prison was the location where Julius and Ethel were put to death after they refused to admit to any of the charges against them.

A man named Harry Gold, who is from the United States, admitted to working as a courier for Greenglass and Fuchs.

It was in 1986 when Mordechai Vanunu, a former technician at the Israeli nuclear facility in Dimona, disclosed information to the British press regarding the Israeli nuclear weapon program. This confirmed the generally held belief that Israel had a highly sophisticated and covert nuclear weapons program and stockpile. Vanunu was kidnapped and smuggled into Israel, where he was prosecuted in a closed-door proceeding and found guilty of treason and espionage. Israel has never admitted or disputed that it has a weapons program.

Vanunu and his supporters argue that he ought to be regarded as a whistle-blower, which is someone who was exposing a secretive and illegal practice. On the other hand, his opponents view him as a traitor and his disclosure of information as aiding enemies of the Israeli state. The question of whether or not Vanunu was actually involved in espionage is a contentious one. Due to the fact that he had been traveling for approximately a year prior to leaving Israel, Vanunu did not instantly decide to provide his information and photographs. The politics of the case are the subject of intense debate.

The United States security agencies believed that the People's Republic of China (PRC) is conducting ongoing nuclear espionage at U.S. nuclear weapons design laboratories, particularly at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories, according to a report issued in 1999 by the United States House of Representatives Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China, which was chaired by Representative Christopher Cox. The report was referred to as the Cox Report. According to the report, the People's Republic of China (PRC) had stolen classified information on all of the United States' most advanced thermonuclear warheads since the 1970s. This information included the design of advanced miniaturized thermonuclear warheads (which can be used on MIRV weapons), the neutron bomb, and weapons codes that allow for computer simulations of nuclear testing (which allows the PRC to advance their weapon development without testing themselves). The United States of America did not appear to be aware of this until the year 1995.

In the end, the investigations that were recounted in the report resulted in the arrest of Wen