RETARDED LEARNER
ated no closer to a city than 0.01 miles times the square root of
the reactor’s power level in kilowatts. It turned out, when we
compared notes, the British had come up with an essentially
identical formula, which shows that meteorology is the same in
different countries. We went into earthquakes and fires, and the
possibility of big oil tanks that would be ignited in case of
trouble. After all that, we got to the question of what the chance
would be of realizing the worst-case scenario. I argued that there
was no way to figure it. You ought to figure, as well, the chance
that somebody could come along who could turn off safety sys-
tem A or B or C, someone who is so well-trusted that he gets
through the security systems. I said that this was something that
nobody could predict, because it depended on the climate of
opinion at the time. I had collected figures on sabotage in World
War I and II. I raised the question of what kind of person would
do this. I said that such a person had to be completely trusted,
technically very good, a loner, animated by some strange ideol-
ogy. As I was speaking, Klaus Fuchs was listening to me across
the table. A month later he was in jail for spying at Los Alamos.
‘‘A few years ago, Sir Rudolf Peierls, who had been responsi-
ble for bringing Fuchs into the bomb project, told me that when
he read that Fuchs was in prison he went immediately to see him.
He said to Fuchs, ‘There has been some terrible mistake. We’ve
got to get proper legal counsel for you.’ Fuchs said, ‘No, there’s
no mistake. I was a spy.’ Peierls said, ‘How could you?’ Fuchs
answered, ‘Well, I meant to give control of the world to the Rus-
sians.’ Peierls said, ‘But how could you?’ ‘But then I meant to tell
them what was wrong with them.’ ’’
Wheeler told me a little epilogue to this. In 1979, the year of
the Einstein Centennial, Wheeler gave eighteen Einstein lec-
tures in eight countries, involving eight crossings of the Atlantic.
One of the lectures was in East Germany. ‘‘It was very strange
compared to the others. The audience was restricted only to
important political figures—the prime minister and the like.
Among the list of notables, I noticed the name Klaus Fuchs. I
asked an East German colleague if, during the coffee break, he
125