Nazi Uranium Cubes Reveal Germany Never Had Enough Material for an Atomic Bomb
Nazi Germany had no hope of making an atomic bomb, uranium cubes reveal
Measurements of surviving uranium cubes, archival research, and computer simulations show that Nazi Germany's combined stocks of uranium and heavy water were far too small to sustain a nuclear chain reaction. The study challenges Werner Heisenberg's postwar claim that the B8 reactor was close to criticality, and finds no evidence he deliberately sabotaged the program.
From a historical point of view, they carry the entire burden of the nuclear enterprise that we have today.
- kjander79
This is an awesome read, and likely correct in the narrative, but the cubes they have at hand to study have a bit of a provenance problem - how do we know they were the ones used for the German research?
At any rate, getting a reactor running still was a long way from the industrial capacity the Americans used to get a working device. Industrial capacity Germany just didn't have late in the war. And after Afrika Korps' defeat, they weren't getting any easily accessible materials anymore.
- WalterBright
It's generally forgotten that Japan was also developing a nuclear bomb. They were a long ways from making a viable one, though. It was abandoned after the surrender.
- sandworm101
The science is only half of the question. Another substantial issue was, even with equal knowledge to the US, did German and/or Japan have the industrial capacity to create a nuclear weapon?
Fun fact also: For all the effort put into the Manhattan project, MORE time/resources were spent on its eventual delivery system (the B-29) than the bomb itself. So even if Germany/Japan had a nuclear bomb, could they have also developed a practical delivery method, something capable enough to trust with such a weapon?
I had this discussion last week with someone who asked about whether Canada could build a bomb. Ya. Easy. Modern industrial capacities dwarf anything from the 1940s. But could Canada so easily develop a delivery platform, say an ICBM or stealth fighter, likely not.
- expedition32
This was already known. The British put the German scientists into a big country house after the war and bugged all the rooms. After the US dropped the atomic bombs the German scientists spent weeks discussing with eachother how the Americans could have done it. They never got it right.
- ck2
but imagine if they did, wow, history would absolutely be completely different and they'd still be in power
speaking of which, pretty sure he's turning Iran to sand after the elections, he'll have nothing left to lose and US is only country to ever use nuclear weapons on a million innocent civilians, twice, so why stop now?
we're out of other weapons except these which seems wildly illegal to use especially on civilians
* https://apnews.com/article/iran-lamerd-us-prsm-lockheed-mart...
Imagine if Putin was using those on Ukraine civilians but US uses them no problem?