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RE: The "From" bug strikes again :-)
Ruth,
> Peenemunde was the German rocket testing/development site where Werner Von
> Braun & Co. worked -- it had nothing to do with nuclear
> science/technology.
I believe you really meant the bombing of the Norsk Hydro heavy water plant
in Norway (forget the name of the nearby town), which did indeed put an end
to the nuclear work, right ?
As for enrichment, from what I have read the Germans did very little work in
that field -- they seemed to consider protactinium-231 (similar to
plutonium) extraction from uranium ores slightly more practical, but still
an impossibly difficult task in the circumstances at the time. ( You see
Pa-231 mentioned in several instances in the Farm Hall transcripts, as well
as the interned scientists' skepticism about the US A-bomb success - knowing
how enormously difficult U-enrichment or Pa-231 extraction would have been
at the time... but Alvin Weinberg confirmed in a letter published in
Physics Today some years ago that even the Manhattan Project people
considered "topping off" their U-235 or Pu-239 with Pa-231, should either
production method - calutron enrichment or reactor uranium conversion - fail
to supply adequate amounts of fissile material. This was early on, before
both techniques proved very successful ).
Jaro
> ----------
> From: ruth_weiner[SMTP:ruth_weiner@email.msn.com]
> Reply To: radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
> Sent: Tuesday August 08, 2000 11:32 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: Re: The "From" bug strikes again :-)
>
> I believe that the bombing of the plant at Peenemunde effectively ended
> the
> German nuclear weapons program. There was, however, no particular
> question
> that the Germans had Czechoslovakian uranium. They went for the Baku oil
> fields, which might have given them the energy resources to enrich uranium
> sufficiently.
>
> To add a lighter note to this thread, I commend to RADSAFERs two Tom
> Lehrer
> songs: "Werner von Braun" and "In the Land of the Old AEC."
>
> Ruth Weiner
> ruth_weiner@msn.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Muckerheide <jmuckerheide@delphi.com>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
> Date: Tuesday, August 08, 2000 11:59 AM
> Subject: The "From" bug strikes again :-)
>
>
> >See, e.g.,:
> >>From a bio note on Heisenberg:
> >http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Heisenberg.htm
> l
> >
> >"During the Second World War he headed the unsuccessful German nuclear
> weapons
> >project. He worked with Otto Hahn, one of the discoverers of nuclear
> fission,
> >on the development of a nuclear reactor but failed to develop an
> effective
> >program for nuclear weapons. Whether this was because of lack of
> resources
> or
> >a lack of a desire to put nuclear weapons in the hands of the Nazis, it
> is
> >unclear.
> >
> >After the war he was interned in Britain with other leading German
> scientists.
> >However he returned to Germany in 1946 when he was appointed director of
> the
> >Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics at Göttingen. In 1958
> the
> >Institute moved to Munich and Heisenberg continued as its director.
> >
> >But, see also:
> >http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/journal/issues/1997/feb/abs204.html
> >
> >Another ref:
> >http://www.csr.utexas.edu/personal/leuliette/HTML/book_1099.html
> >
> >Regards, Jim
> >muckerheide@mediaone.net
> >========================
> >
> >Franz Schoenhofer wrote:
> >>
> >> At 08:14 08.08.2000 -0500, you wrote:
> >> >I believe way beyond the shadow of a doubt that President Truman made
> the
> >> correct decision. My Father and wife's father were posed to invade
> the,
> >> then Japanese aggressor (who knows I or my wife might have never been).
> I
> >> sincerely believe that the people of Japan, who now represent a new
> >> generation, have new ideals and this is good. The one question for
> everyone
> >> I have is that do they remember that Germany and Japan during WW II
> were
> >> developing their own capability for nuclear destruction.
> >>
> >> There was not the slightest chance for Germany or Japan to develop a
> >> nuclear bomb. Germany had an assembly of uranium, where a small
> >> multiplication of neutrons could be achieved, no self-sustaining chain
> >> reaction was possible. There was no technology to enrich uranium or to
> >> breed plutonium, therefore no access to the necessary fissile material.
> >> There was during the last years of WWII no money and no infrastructure
> >> available for such a development. Japan was far behind Germany
> regarding
> >> nuclear research, I am not sure that they even knew about the
> theoretical
> >> possibility.
> >>
> >> I know, that it has been often been used nearly as an excuse, that the
> USA
> >> was suspicious that a nuclear bomb was under construction in Germany -
> but
> >> was and is a myth and counter intelligence should have known better.
> >>
> >> Franz
> >>
> >> Franz Schoenhofer
> >> Habicherg. 31/7
> >> A-1160 Vienna
> >> Austria
> >> Tel.: +43-1-495 53 08
> >> Fax.: same number
> >> mobile phone: +43-664-338 0 333
> >> e-mail: schoenho@via.at
> >>
> >> Please note my new telephone number at my office!
> >>
> >> Office:
> >> Ministerialrat Dr. Franz Schoenhofer
> >> Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water
> Management
> >> Radiation Protection Department (BMLFUW I/8 U)
> >> Radetzkystr. 2
> >> A-1031 Vienna
> >> AUSTRIA
> >>
> >> phone: -43-1-71100-4458
> >> fax: -43-1-7122331
> >************************************************************************
> >The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
> >information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html
>
>
>
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