February 28, 2010 at 13:521943 German Uranium Found
Specialists from the Institute of Transuranium Elements of the European Research Center JRC completed the analysis of two samples of radioactive material found in 2009 near Rotterdam (Holland).
The first specimen - a uranium metal cube - was obtained from uranium mined at the Joachimsthal Czech mine in late 1943. The cube was part of the experiments conducted by physicist Werner Heisenberg, one of the participants in the Nazi nuclear program . The second instance - a uranium metal plate - is made of the same rock mined at different intervals of the 40s, and was part of the work of another physicist Karl Wirtz, a close associate of Heisenberg.
As you know, the best nuclear physicists in the world lived in Germany in the late 1930s, including Otto Gahn (Nazi), Fritz Strassmann (most likely also a member of the party) and his wife Lisa Meitner (a Jewess who was given "official permission" to work in Germany, but she still decided to leave the country before the war). The three of them discovered the fission of heavy nuclei in 1938, including Meitner published the physical justification of the experiment. For this discovery, Gan and Strassman received the 1945 Nobel Prize, and the 109th element of the periodic table was named after Meitner. Following Meitner’s publication in January 1939, physicist Albert Einstein wrote a letter to the US president warning of the reality of the German nuclear threat. The Americans quickly organized the Manhattan project for an adequate response.
By 1939, Germany had all the theory for the production of a nuclear bomb, but for some reason even the reactor could not make it. In addition, in 1944, their only heavy water plant in Norway was destroyed, with 15-ton reserves.
via JRC
The first specimen - a uranium metal cube - was obtained from uranium mined at the Joachimsthal Czech mine in late 1943. The cube was part of the experiments conducted by physicist Werner Heisenberg, one of the participants in the Nazi nuclear program . The second instance - a uranium metal plate - is made of the same rock mined at different intervals of the 40s, and was part of the work of another physicist Karl Wirtz, a close associate of Heisenberg.
As you know, the best nuclear physicists in the world lived in Germany in the late 1930s, including Otto Gahn (Nazi), Fritz Strassmann (most likely also a member of the party) and his wife Lisa Meitner (a Jewess who was given "official permission" to work in Germany, but she still decided to leave the country before the war). The three of them discovered the fission of heavy nuclei in 1938, including Meitner published the physical justification of the experiment. For this discovery, Gan and Strassman received the 1945 Nobel Prize, and the 109th element of the periodic table was named after Meitner. Following Meitner’s publication in January 1939, physicist Albert Einstein wrote a letter to the US president warning of the reality of the German nuclear threat. The Americans quickly organized the Manhattan project for an adequate response.
By 1939, Germany had all the theory for the production of a nuclear bomb, but for some reason even the reactor could not make it. In addition, in 1944, their only heavy water plant in Norway was destroyed, with 15-ton reserves.
via JRC