The Secret of the Three Bullets: How New Nuclear Weapons Are Back on the Battlefield - Brossura

Torrealta, Maurizo; Del Giudice, Emilio

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1937584267 ISBN 13: 9781937584269

Casa editrice: Trine Day, 2014

Riassunto

Four journalists found themselves traveling around the world with the aim of finding answers to some questions: Why was valid research into room-temperature fusion deliberately ignored? Why was enriched uranium found in a crater caused by a bomb in Khiam, Southern Lebanon? Why do depleted uranium bullets produce a temperature of 4000°C? Why are there traces of other radioactive elements in those bullets? How do the new bombs dropped on Gaza work, bombs that are able to amputate people&;s legs while leaving no trace of metal fragments? The answers to these questions are linked to one another by a secret that has been kept hidden for more than 20 years: a discovery of a process in physics that has enabled the production of nuclear bombs the size of a bullet. Based on facts, The Secret of the Three Bullets is a scientific spy story that tells in fiction the reality behind cold fusion and its use on the battlefield today.

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Informazioni sull'autore

Maurizo Torrealta has worked as a journalist for 28 years. He is the director of the Italian weekly magazine Left Avvenimenti and the chief editor of investigative journalism for Rai News 24 in Italy. He has a PhD in political science from the University of Bologna. Emilio Del Giudice is a retired senior scientist at the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics and formerly worked at the Theoretical Physics Center at MIT and the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. He was the recipient of the Prigogine Award in 2009.

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The Secret of the Three Bullets

How New Nuclear Weapons Are Back on the Battlefield

By Maurizio Torrealta, Emilio Del Giudice

Trine Day LLC

Copyright © 2014 Maurizio Torrealta and Emilio Del Giudice
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-937584-26-9

Contents

CoverImage, 
Title Page, 
Copyright page, 
Introduction, 
Epigraph, 
That Strange Phone Call, 
The Scientists Involved In Enea's Report 41, 
The Professor Dreams About Edward Teller, 
The Physicist, Kurt Grass, Talks About Alfred Coehn, A Forgotten Genius, 
The Newsroom, 
The Professor Goes Under The Knife, 
Press Conference In Salt Lake City On March 23, 1989, 
Tutankhamen's Curse, 
The Professor's Convalescence, 
A Lesson In Nuclear Physics, 
J.B. Conant: War Administrator, President of Harvard, and the Groves Memorandum, 
The Russell-Einstein Manifesto, 
A Holiday In Antibes, 
Percy Williams Bridgman and His Forgotten Discovery, 
Enriched Uranium In Khiam, 
Jey Who Never Sleeps, 
A Dinner According to the Book, 
Enriched Uranium In Beirut, 
Some Things Cannot Be Asked At The First Question, 
The Journey to Meet Professor Martin Fleischmann, 
Confirmation of the Mysterious Telephone Call, 
The Veteran From 1991 and the Third Nuclear Bomb, 
Verification of the Veteran's Account and the 'Calculated Ambiguity' Doctrine, 
Mysterious Weapons in Gaza, 
Cold Fusion Is Hot Again, 
Letter on the Oppenheimer Affair, 
Letter Regarding the Oppenheimer Affair, 
Oppenheimer's Letter of Response on Letter Regarding, 
the Oppenheimer Affair, 
The Russell-Einstein Manifesto, 
GLOVE MEMORANDUM, 

CHAPTER 1

That Strange Phone Call

The professor came out of the airport in San Francisco as though breathlessly surfacing from a long dive. He went over to a taxi.

"Can you take me to Union Square?"

The taxi turned onto US Route 101 North. The professor collapsed on the back seat and gazed out of the window, his eyebrows arching, wrinkles crinkling, eyes narrowing.

Even the taxi driver could see it in his face.

What an awful journey: an hour waiting on the plane in Salt Lake City before take off, then missing the connecting flight to London and now looking for a hotel with his gut as heavy as lead.

The taxi raced along Bayshore. It was a summer evening in 1989. Out on the bay, a glimpse of bluish mist hanging over the water created a sight that would have soothed the most restless of spirits, but had not the slightest effect on the professor.

The taxi stopped at Union Square, the victory monument towering over the center of the plaza. The taxi drove off and the professor walked towards one hotel, then decided on another.

The distress of this unplanned night in San Francisco would have warranted the best downtown hotel, but for just a few hours, it made no difference where he stayed.

The professor walked up to the reception desk and mumbled, "I'd like a room for the night...."

The telephone on the desk rang, interrupting him, and the man behind the counter quickly picked it up.

"Who? When did he arrive? Are you sure? Who's speaking? One moment, please...."

Then, turning to the professor, "It's for you, sir. Professor Teller wants to talk to you."

The professor grabbed the phone.

"Who is this? Who's speaking?" Questions stuttered without even waiting for an answer. "Who? From where? I don't understand ... Who is this?"

On the other end of the line, a voice with a strong Hungarian accent answered.

"It's Professor Edward Teller. I heard you were going away to have an operation, so I'd like to wish you all the best for a speedy recovery. But I also wanted to take this opportunity to have some information about your experiment, the charge level and optimal electric field ... if I'm not disturbing you, of course."

The professor, with a barely visible movement of his lips, uttered polite trivialities followed by equally trivial technical suggestions.

"Proceed gradually with the charge. After a certain period, within a few weeks, heating will occur ... we're still in the experimental stage and have to advance with caution...."

But his face told a different story.

How the hell does he know where I am, if I didn't even know I was coming here? So they're following me. Why?

The call ended with mutual niceties.

.".. let me know how it goes. We're all thinking of you."

"I'm happy you called. Thank you so much for your concern. See you soon."

He hung up the phone and asked to be taken to his room.

"Did you have a good trip?" asked the bellboy. "Shall I get you a drink from the bar? Do you want me to raise your room temperature?"

The professor did not answer, closed the door and even forgot to tip him. He threw himself onto the bed, closed his eyes and began to think.

Teller, the man who inspired the figure of Dr. Strangelove – the mad scientist who could not keep his arm from making the Nazi salute. When he arrived in the US, he fought with all the scientists involved in the Manhattan Project. For him, Los Alamos was a den of Communists. He wanted to produce the H-bomb at all costs, even though not one of his calculations was correct ... he got the military establishment to set up a laboratory just for him, because he couldn't get along with anyone else. He's an awesome person, a hugely intelligent man but entirely out of control and too close to the military. If someone had sent me an envelope containing five bullets, I'd feel better than I do now, receiving his best wishes for a speedy recovery. Recovery. ... Right, but what's wrong with me?

So many tiny tumors in the colon caused by something that no one could explain.

Why did they delay the plane to organize this stupid farce of a phone call before I left for London? The message is clear: "You're being followed. Don't speak to anyone. We can find you whenever we want. Get lost, because the things you know must never be revealed."

I'm not so paranoid that I can be scared by a "good luck" phone call. But it's still a call from the father of the hot fusion bomb to the father of cold fusion, which already indicates a slight difference of opinion, if only for a question of temperature. If Teller had called me at home or at the university, that'd be fine ... but in this hotel ... my fears are definitely founded.

"When you know why you're afraid, you no longer fear," he said out loud.

The professor seemed heartened by this clarity, brightened up, took a packet of peanuts from the fridge, ate them and started thinking again.

Why is he having me followed? Everything I do has been made public now. ... We talked about it all at the press conference, me and my colleague. There must be something about the research I'm doing or have already done that worries Teller. We both started as chemists. Like me, he did research into hydrogen. His thesis dealt with the first detailed treatment of the hydrogen molecular ion and I'm doing something similar. Perhaps he knows something I don't. Maybe he wants to use what I've discovered for purposes different from mine. One thing is sure: this is just the beginning, he won't stop, and it's certainly not a good start.

CHAPTER 2

The Scientists Involved In Enea's Report 41

Florence, summer 2006.

Claudio leans forwards and murmurs into the ear of Norma, a blonde girl sitting in the row before his, "That's the eighth time he's said 'so to speak.'"

"Is it a conference on new wars, or a meeting of stammering militants?" she answers, without turning her head.

"He who knows, does not speak ... and he who speaks does not know. This man falls into the second category," he replied under his breath.

"And how do we meet the first, if those who know ... just keep quiet?"

It is hot, chaotic, in the lecture hall. This is not an ordinary lecture, even if there is a respectful silence before and after every speech. A man at the speakers' table announces a coffee break. Claudio jumps to his feet, trying to catch up with Norma and carry on the conversation, when an elderly gentleman, with a courtesy uncommon to those in the room, comes up to him and whispers in a low voice, "You must forgive me for disturbing you, my name is Professor Palazzi, I greatly appreciate the investigations that you and your group of journalists are conducting and, if I may, I would like to suggest a particular subject to you ..."

Claudio's eyes follow Norma as she walks away with a group of people and he sighs as he answers, "Tell me, Professor Palazzi."

"Cold fusion. On 23 March 1989, as you may recall, two professors from Salt Lake City announced that it was possible to produce low energy nuclear reactions. This announcement sparked ferocious debate: they were accused of falsifying data, superficiality and all possible scientific misconduct. Now a group of scientists from ENEA, the National Agency for Atomic and Alternative Energy in Italy, chaired by a renowned Nobel laureate, has verified that the experiment can be replicated and has also identified the reproducibility values. You might find it very interesting to look into. Get in touch with this theoretical physicist," he says, handing over a business card.

Then, with the same courtesy, he takes his leave. "I apologize if I have disturbed you and taken up your precious time. Thank you once again for what you are doing ..."

Claudio stands quite still, Norma now completely forgotten.

What he had been hoping for has finally happened: someone who knows and has not yet spoken, has very timidly handed him restricted information. And all of a sudden, his list of priorities changes: get back to the office, contact the ENEA group, study cold fusion, get further information on the scientists working on it. The business card ... he must not forget it, and he quickly writes the name and phone number in his diary.

The place is really strange: too impersonal to be called a village and too old-fashioned for a research center. But the chaos reigning there gives the impression that an irrepressible form of vitality continues to survive within that disorder. Dr. Garbati politely greets Claudio as she ushers him into an anonymous Seventies-style building. On the door of the laboratory, there is a strange symbol: FF11018.

"We worked in this workshop from 1999 to 2002. This is the constant temperature chamber that hosted the electrolysis experiment. We conducted an experiment in which it was possible to simultaneously measure excess heat and the eventual production of helium 4, which is the sign that the fusion event has a nuclear nature," the researcher tells him.

"What event?" asks Claudio.

"The cold fusion of two hydrogen nuclei or, if you prefer, of their isotope, deuterium."

Claudio smiles to himself, thinking that he has no idea what "deuterium" is, then asks, "Why don't you explain the whole story to me from the beginning?"

"In 1999, when the Nobel laureate became president of this institution, we witnessed a favorable sort of astral combination: we were given one billion, 150 million lire and a period of thirty-six months to verify, ten years after the announcement in Salt Lake City, whether cold fusion was a hoax or an amazing discovery. In April 2002 we sent a note to the president to inform him that we were ready to report on the project. The results we had obtained showed that the theory of cold fusion was valid: there was in fact a direct relationship between increase in the production of helium-four atoms and the production of heat. The Nobel laureate was very happy with the news, and even joined us in drawing up a report, offering a great deal of advice and many suggestions.

"A few days later, however, the situation changed dramatically: the magazines, for various reasons, did not publish the report, the Nobel laureate could no longer be found, but no one said 'this can't be done' or 'this is wrong.' Everything stood still until the autumn of 2002 when we decided to send a request for further funding so that we could continue our research into cold fusion. But there was no reply on that occasion either.

"Then there was an unexpected turn of events: the High Commissioner of CEA, the government body responsible for all civilian and military nuclear activities in France contacted us. CEA had received a request from the French giant EDF (Electricité de France) to start working on cold fusion again, and we were invited to Paris to hold seminars on this topic. Our research was greeted with considerable interest, so much so that three French scientists were sent to this very laboratory where we are now, to take photographs and make drawings of our equipment with a view to opening a similar laboratory on the outskirts of Paris. In short, they were coming all the way from France to copy our experience, when in Italy the people who had funded it were doing nothing to continue the research."

"Dr. Garbati," breaks in Claudio, "Do you think you could give me any idea of what practical consequences your experiments might have?"

"You should know that we carried out experiments aimed at scientific testing and so we used metals such as palladium, which is known as white gold because of its high cost, but cold fusion can take place within several heavy metals that are much cheaper, such as tungsten, for example. Using a liter of distilled water and the full lattice of a block of tungsten only a few cubic centimeters in size, that costs only a few Euros, dozens of kilowatts of power can be produced for hundreds of years. These are the units of measure of the energy produced."

"Please continue telling me about your discovery, Dr. Garbati."

"Then there was another turn of events: on October 20th 2004, the Ministry of Economic Development called our group in. While surfing the net, they had come across Report 41, the results of our investigations and research. The Ministry said it would be interested in funding research into cold fusion, offering 800,000 Euros for two years. Of course, we were ecstatic ... but then came yet another twist. ENEA was contacted by the Ministry, accepted the funding, but decided to give it to a different group that was already following another line of research in collaboration with American and Israeli partners."

"You don't seem to have many supporters. There's probably a connection between the positive results you obtained, the disappearance of all your followers and this last loss of funds. But what interests could be affected by cold fusion?"

"Every time you do something new, you alter the balance and interests of the people who worked in the previous way. Imagine, for example, how worried the admirals of those great sailing ships must have been when the first motorized ships appeared. If you then consider that trillions of Euros had been allocated to build a huge plant (ITER) to study nuclear fusion, you can see how much cold fusion might have bothered people ..."

Claudio doesn't feel totally convinced by this explanation. In fact, after reflecting in silence for some moments, he asks, "If these were the only reasons, then your colleagues who work with the Americans and Israelis should have the same difficulties. Maybe there are other reasons...."

The researcher becomes more serious and replies, "I suspect research has been carried out in this field for a long time by various people, some academic scholars, others in the industrial world ... others neither in the academic nor industrial field, but if I were to talk about my suspicions, I'd only make the situation worse, so I think it's best if our conversation ends here. When you run into problems with this issue, keep in mind that they may come from many different angles. And I would ask you not to mention our conversation."

"Don't worry, the camera is off. I've just taken a few notes. First I want to understand this story, then I'll see how I can tell it. Can I call you and ask for help if there's something I don't understand?"

"Of course."

"Now that should worry you, because it'll happen often! Here's my business card. Talk to you soon, then ..."

A little later, while he is driving towards his office, Claudio permits himself the rare pleasure of reasoning. When new information is acquired – and this doesn't happen very often – his drowsy brain synapses seem to wake up and begin a mysterious dance as they analyze the new data, predicting, making assumptions, testing.

On the other hand, what else do humans do if not make assumptions? This is their only activity: from their first day in the classroom until their last little Promethean jump, from bed to graveyard, men and women do nothing but make assumptions. And when they have nothing else to assume, they get excited about crossword puzzles, television programs. And that's what happens to Claudio as he follows the dance of hypotheses in his mind.

Professor Palazzi was right. The story is fascinating. It means doing a kind of Reverse Engineering: the deeper the research goes, the more someone will take the trouble to slow it down.

We need to know why someone is trying to hide this discovery ... we can make two hypotheses: first, that the discovery of a new source of cheap energy might scare people who up to now have earned a lot of money selling energy. Second, that behind this discovery there may be a physics process with massive potential that no one knows about, because it could lead to huge economic and military advantages. This must be the reason ... but my knowledge is ridiculously inadequate. I need to understand the physics processes better. I need ... of course, the theoretical physicist that Palazzi advised me to contact. That's who I need! I must call him, he'll undoubtedly be able to help me.

With one hand on the wheel, he pulls out his diary and keeping an eye on the road, looks for the name.

"Kurt Grass. The prefix is for Tuscany. I should call him at once," he says out loud.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Secret of the Three Bullets by Maurizio Torrealta, Emilio Del Giudice. Copyright © 2014 Maurizio Torrealta and Emilio Del Giudice. Excerpted by permission of Trine Day LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: Trine Day
• Data di pubblicazione: 2014
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 1937584267
• ISBN 13: 9781937584269
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 176
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: non disponibile