Montreal and the Bomb

With war raging in Europe, the Allies worried about advances being made by Germans scientists. The British wanted to get a jump ahead of Hitler and the physicists working for the Third Reich. England was too close to the enemy, so they decided to secretly establish a nuclear research laboratory in Montreal. The best scientists moved to Montreal with two goals in mind: develop an ultra-powerful bomb and find a new source of energy. What started as cooperation with the Americans instead became a race to harness the energy of the atom when Washington launched the Manhattan project. Montreal and the Bomb breathes new life into the exhilarating saga of European scientists secretly developing a strategic nuclear laboratory in the halls of the Université de Montréal. It’s a story peopled by leading figures of modern physics, bold chemists, and scientists accused of spying. The one idea driving them is to master the atom, whatever the result may be.

Gilles Sabourin is a nuclear engineer specialized in the safety of nuclear power plants. He worked for more than twenty years for the Montreal office of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. Montreal and the Bombis the result of fifteen years of intensive research into the atomic energy adventure in Montreal during the Second World War. He lives in the Montreal area. Katherine Hastings has worked as a Quebec-based translator and copyeditor since 1995. She has translated two novels by Jean-Michel Fortier, The Unknown Huntsman (2016) and The Electric Baths (2020); co-translated Tatouine, a novel by Jean-Christophe Réhel (2020); and revised numerous other books for QC Fiction, an imprint of Baraka Books, including éric Dupont’s 2018 Giller Prize finalist Songs for the Cold of Heart.

Table of Contents Foreword 4 Introduction 5 Origins of the Laboratory 6 Arrival of Hans Halban in Montreal 6 The Battle for Heavy Water 12 The British Take the Lead 18 England Under Threat 21 Montreal: The Project’s New Home 25 Chaotic Beginnings 28 Laboratory at War 34 Bertrand Goldschmidt, A Valuable Find 34 Relocating to Université de Montréal 36 The Quebec Conference 39 Work Begins in Earnest 50 New Era for the Laboratory 57 An Astute Shift to Energy 57 Montreal and the Bomb 70 Radioactive Contamination and Accidents 81 The Cobalt “Bomb” 85 A Den of Espionage 90 The Gouzenko Affair 90 Alan Nunn May 92 Bruno Pontecorvo, a Central Figure 99 Who Was Bruno Pontecorvo? 100 The Sudden Disappearance of Pontecorvo 101 The Kellock-Taschereau Commission 107 Conclusion 109 Hiroshima and Nagasaki 109 Proliferation 114 Legacy of the Montreal Laboratory 115 Acknowledgements 120 Bibliography 122