Russell Alton McNutt

Russell Alton McNutt (May 21, 1914 – February 1, 2008) was an American engineer who worked on the Manhattan Project. Posthumously-published analysis of KGB documents alleged that he was an atomic spy for the Soviet Union. An associate of convicted Soviet spy Julius Rosenberg, he is said to have passed information about the layout and design of parts of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to the Soviets.

Life McNutt, one of six children, was born on May 21, 1914 in La Cygne, Kansas, to Ernest and Arnett "Addie" McNutt.

He attended Kansas State University before transferring to Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, from which he graduated in 1940.

After the war, during which he also worked for the Manhattan Project, he went on to work for Gulf Oil until his retirement in 1979, holding various positions within the company and in Venezuela, Iran, and Spain.

He died in Marion, North Carolina, on February 1, 2008. This was based on Vassiliev's copious notes on documents in the KGB-successor SVR archives, although information from Venona decrypts matches McNutt's biography. A few months later, in February 1944, Rosenberg passed McNutt's first contributions to the KGB. He provided information about the structural design of K-25, including equipment locations and blueprints. He was never charged or convicted, the investigation having turned up no conclusive indications of his espionage.