[craig_s_bell]

Good piece. IMHO the introductory narrative might be slightly enhanced by briefly pointing out that synthesis of plutonium was not achieved until several years after Szilard's brainstorm. Something like, "Researchers predicted that Pu would offer such-and-so advantages; however, nobody had quite yet come up with the recipe."

In other words: As described with the high-level bomb design, every material and component therein was concurrently being developed, improvised or straight-up invented to meet existing theory.

Thank you for recommending Rhodes' books; they are excellent. I may be alone in this; however I wish he had split 'Dark Sun' into two distinct volumes: One about the development of thermonuclear technology; and another for all of the spy stuff.