Day sent draft copies of Morland's article out to reviewers in late 1978 and early 1979, including Ron Siegel, a graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Siegel gave his draft copy to George Rathjens, a professor of political science there in February 1979. For many years, Rathjens had issued a challenge to his graduate students to produce a workable design for a hydrogen bomb, but no one had ever succeeded. Rathjens phoned "The Progressive" and urged that the article not be published. When the editors dismissed his suggestion, he sent the draft to the DOE. "Apparently," wrote Morland, "I had earned a passing grade on the Rathjens challenge".