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The failure of Nazi Germany’s nuclear program is well documented in the historical record. Less documented is how a handful of uranium cubes, possibly manufactured by the Nazis, ended up in laboratories in the United States.
Scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Maryland said that the three uranium cubes they had in their hands were used for World War II. They are working to determine whether it was produced by Germany’s failed nuclear program during World War II.
The answer could raise more questions, such as whether the Nazis had enough uranium to provoke a critical response. And if the Nazis were successful in building an atomic bomb, what would that mean for war?
Researchers in the lab believe they will be able to learn the origin of the cubes by the end of October. According to the project’s principal investigator, Jon Schwantes, the main evidence for now is anecdotal in the form of stories from other scientists.
The lab has no scientific evidence or documentation to confirm that Nazi Germany produced the black cubes, about two inches on each side. He said the Nazis produced 1,000 to 1,200 cubes, of which about half were confiscated by Allied forces.
Dr. “The whereabouts of most of these cubes is unknown today,” Schwantes said, “and it’s likely that these cubes are folded in our weapon stock.”
“The crux of our effort is, first of all, to verify the pedigree of these cubes,” he said. “We believe they are from Nazi Germany’s nuclear program, but having scientific proof of that is what we’re really trying to do.”
When they were first produced, the cubes were essentially pure uranium metal. Over time, this elemental uranium partially decayed into thorium and protactinium. To determine the age of the cubes, the researchers plan to use a process called radiochronometry, which can separate and measure the chemical makeup of the cubes.
Dr. “Uranium decays at a regular rate,” Schwantes said. “So, when we measure the ratio of thorium to uranium in the cube, it’s actually a measure of elapsed time.”
Identifying when the cubes were made can help trace whether they were in Germany in the early 1940s. Such determination would raise more questions: Could the Nazis prolong the war or even change the outcome by making their own bombs?
Ultimately, German forces were defeated by the Allies in May 1945, ending the war in Europe and in the Pacific, Japan held off until September, but the United States surrendered after dropping atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing dozens. thousands of people.
Saying that he was interested in mathematics and chemistry at school, Dr. Schwantes said he prefers not to speculate about how the history might have been different, but said it was “surreal to have such historical material handy and think about where it was.” , and who else did.”
Some historians think that even if they had nuclear capability, the Nazis could not change the way the war ended.
Kate Brown, who teaches the environment and Cold War history at MIT, predicted that Nazi Germany’s nuclear weapons production would probably not have much of an impact on the war.
“They were in total war mode, more and more so,” he said. “They might have made a dirty bomb. It’s not as hard as making a nuclear bomb.”
A key ingredient the Germans needed to produce an atomic bomb was heavy water, which is water made from a hydrogen isotope called deuterium, which has twice the mass of normal hydrogen.
Professor Brown said that in their quest to produce an atomic bomb, the Germans wanted to use a method in which uranium was immersed in heavy water. But the Allies dealt a “big blow” to these plans when they bombed a facility in Norway, the only place the Germans could get the main supplies, he added.
Professor Brown also said that to be successful in its efforts, Nazi Germany would need large factories to manufacture bombs, large terrains to test them, and security from the threat of air strikes so that the enemies could not spy on them.
Adam Seipp, a history professor at Texas A&M University, said that Nazi Germany lacked resources because it was “really bad at industrial production.”
“That’s one of the reasons they lost the war so badly,” he said.
Professor Brown said that even if Nazi Germany could produce a dirty bomb, the Germans would need an airplane that could fly long distances undetected.
“They wouldn’t have planes that could reach cities like Moscow,” he said. “Really, the only destination I can think of might be London,” he said.
Professor Brown said a Nazi bomb wouldn’t have much of an impact on the war, but the Nazis set the stage for the Cold War by simply trying to build one. The Soviets, who were allies of the United States to defeat Germany at the time, knew that the Americans had taken this uranium from the country “just below them”.
“This becomes a real engine of suspicion that almost immediately started the Cold War,” said Professor Brown.
Professor Seipp said that after the war, the Soviet Union and the United States were interested in German scientists and equipment. The United States even launched a covert Operation Paperclip with the aim of “transporting highly valued German scientists to the United States and often ignoring their very troubled war histories in order to stay, frankly, out of Soviet hats.”
“This helps widen the growing gap between these former allies,” he said.
Then there was an arms race between the United States and the Soviets (the United States showed its power first. [WhenhebombedJapanin1945[1945’teJaponya’yıbombaladığında), then a space race among former allies.
For now Dr. The preliminary results on the two cubes look promising, Schwantes said. Saying that the science used to date the cubes is not new, Dr. Earth in 4.5 billion years.
“In our case, it’s the same science applied to different problems,” said Mr Schwantes. “We’re interested in time regimes from zero to 100 years,” he said, while scientists who determine the age of the Earth work with time scales of billions of years.
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