> The duo was banned from consulting classified research but anything they produced—diagrams and notes—automatically became classified. [...] Finally, after a presentation at Livermore, a senior researcher named Jim Frank pulled them aside and told them that the experiment was a resounding success. Had it been constructed, Jim told them, it would have made a pretty impressive bang as large as Hiroshima."
This does not pass the smell test. People who work with classified information are absolutely paranoid. This Jim Frank guy was very likely not allowed to disclose the result of the experiment to anyone without a clearance, including the "duo".
They probably went through the clearance process, with information only kept from them in order to see how they would fare without it.
Evidence consistent with this is that they were allowed to design experiments and get results of them back. So they were given classified info just in a very controlled way.
Yes, but then we wouldn't know about the result. Except if someone was terribly careless with classified information. Or if the "leaked" info was actually a decoy.
> The duo was banned from consulting classified research but anything they produced—diagrams and notes—automatically became classified. [...] Finally, after a presentation at Livermore, a senior researcher named Jim Frank pulled them aside and told them that the experiment was a resounding success. Had it been constructed, Jim told them, it would have made a pretty impressive bang as large as Hiroshima."
This does not pass the smell test. People who work with classified information are absolutely paranoid. This Jim Frank guy was very likely not allowed to disclose the result of the experiment to anyone without a clearance, including the "duo".