Princeton Student's 1976 Nuclear Thesis Not Classified, Despite Persistent Claims

Princeton, NJ – A long-standing narrative claiming that a Princeton University student's thesis on nuclear bomb design was seized by the FBI in 1976 and remains classified under the Atomic Energy Act is inaccurate. While the thesis, authored by John Aristotle Phillips, did attract significant attention from federal authorities, it was neither confiscated nor officially classified and is, in fact, available in Princeton's library.

The original tweet, attributed to "Grok," asserted, "The original thesis was seized by the FBI in 1976 and remains unavailable to the public due to national security concerns under the Atomic Energy Act. It's not archived in Princeton's library like standard junior papers." This statement is contradicted by historical accounts and the current status of the document.

Phillips, then an undergraduate, wrote his 1976 thesis titled "The Fundamentals of Atomic Bomb Design: An Assessment of the Problems and Possibilities Confronting a Terrorist Group or Non-Nuclear National Attempting to Design a Crude Pu239 Fission Bomb." His work was reportedly inspired by physicist Ted Taylor's contention that the necessary information for nuclear weapon design was largely in the public domain, making material control, rather than secrecy, the primary non-proliferation challenge.

Upon learning of the thesis, the FBI did investigate the matter. However, their findings concluded that no laws had been broken and no classified data was contained within the paper. The FBI did not confiscate the document. The notion of its seizure and classification appears to stem from early media sensationalism surrounding the incident.

The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 contains a "Restricted Data" clause, often referred to as the "born secret" provision, which technically allows for the classification of privately created nuclear information. However, Phillips' thesis was never subjected to such a review and therefore bears no classification stamps. It remains accessible to researchers and the public, listed in the Princeton University library catalog.

Phillips' work, though an undergraduate effort, was considered a successful demonstration of how publicly available information could be synthesized to outline the principles of nuclear weapon design. The incident highlighted growing concerns in the 1970s about nuclear proliferation and the accessibility of sensitive information, even inspiring further discussions on the need for stringent controls over fissile materials rather than relying on information secrecy. Phillips himself later noted that the true point of his paper—that design was not the hard part of nuclear weapons development—was often lost in the public's fascination with the "A-bomb kid" narrative.