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Lost Nazi Uranium Found In a Dutch Scrapyard
colin_faber writes "Lewis Page of the Register is reporting that forensic nuclear scientists at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre traced the two pieces of metal found in a Dutch scrapyard — described as a cube and a plate — back to their exact origins and dates. Apparently both came from ores extracted at the 'Joachimsthal' mine in what is now the Czech Republic from the former Nazi nuclear-weapons programme of the 1940s." The article runs through the roadblocks that, unknown to the Allies, the Nazi regime erected against their possible success in any nuclear bomb development during the war.
There's been a lot of controversy over whether Heisenberg deliberately sabotaged the Nazi bomb-making or whether he tried to help but was incompetent or whether the failure was due to factors beyond Heisenberg. Although I have not read the book, I've been told that Paul Rose's book "Heisenberg and the Nazi Atomic Bomb Project" presents a strong case that Heisenberg tried his hardest to assist the Nazi regime in the building of the atom bomb.
The fact this can be traced to production batches at Joachimstal during the war is interesting for the following reason: it was a mine incapable of supporting a nuclear weapon program.
Joachimstal (Jachymov today) is an ancient and famous mining district (others have noted here that Thaler == Dollar originated from its name) and due to radon gas in its mine is also the earliest recorded incidences of death from occupational radiation exposure - - - lung cancer was a common cause of death of underground miners from the 16th century onward. It was also a prominent source of material for the discovery of radiation and radioactive elements.
But it could only produce a few tens of tons of uranium annually! Something like a 1000 tons of uranium was needed to support an effective nuclear weapons program.
Germany had however a couple of thousand tons of already mined and processed ore from the Belgian Congo, captured at the outset of the war. This material was perfect for a nuclear weapons program - if it had one. This material was captured by the U.S. at the end of the war unused. A couple of thousand tons of ore from this same mine and shipped to the U.S. before the war in fact powered the Manhattan Project through most of its wartime operations.
That Germany was still relying on old pre-war supply arrangements through Joamchimstal to obtain research uranium is very interesting. It is another manifestation of the failure to create a real weapons program.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
Germany simply didn't have the spare industrial capacity to build installations of this magnitude without serious reprecussions on their war effort. As well the design of these facilities are pretty obvious (and large) making them perfect targets for the 8th Airforce
These exact same arguments can be made about the V-2 project, that consumed 2 billion Reichsmarks (1.2 billion US $ at the time, about 70% of the budget of the Manhattan Project during the war) late in the war for negligible real contribution to the war effort.
The Mittlewerk V-2 plant was bombed many times, but being built underground of reinformed concrete, it was never put out of operation.
These same resources could have provided a robust nuclear weapons program (but no bomb by the end of the war).
Most surprising is Germany's failure to have a vigorous R&D effort early in the war on uranium. The cost of such a project would have been small (compared to the huge costs of industrial production) a few tens of million of RM over 2-3 years. They had two strong motivations to do this, even if they thought no atomic bomb was possible during the war.
1. If Germany had "won the war" (defeat of the USSR, undisputed control over continental Europe, and the Anglo-American world suing for peace) they still would face a hostile Britain and U.S. even after an armistice. Given the precedent of WWI and WWII another round 10-20 years down the road seemed likely. Staying ahead of the Anglo-Americans in atomic technology would have been essential even in a victorious scenario.
2. Using uranium as a source of power seemed much easier, and the French were actively pursuing this in 1940 before defeat. The US Navy started its own independent uranium program to build reactors to power submarines around this time. To Germany - outclassed in Naval power and needing to sever the sea supply line of the UK and USSR - the possibility of a uranium powered U-boat should have given the German Navy and Hitler thrills of a well-nigh sexual nature. Yet no serious effort was devoted to exploring this.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj