Mysterious uranium from Hitler's nuclear reactor

The box-shaped uranium was sent to Professor Koeth with a message: 'It was taken from Germany, from the nuclear reactor Hitler sought to build. Gift of Ninninger '. Professor was surprised and excited.

Uranium blocks are box-shaped, each side is nearly 5cm long.(Photo: Physics Today).

'I immediately understood what that was , ' said Professor Koeth, who is a collector of nuclear artifacts, talking about dark mysterious material. But first, he needed to verify the origin of the uranium to see if it was actually taken from Hitler's failed nuclear reactor project in the past.

Professor Koeth formed a research group together with thesis defense student Dr. Miriam Hiebert to verify the origin of the strange matter. In his research, Professor and Hieber discovered surprising conclusions that Germany may have actually created a World War II nuclear reactor despite completing the task. of individual research teams has affected the success of the program. These findings were presented by him and his colleagues in the May 2019 issue of Physics Today magazine.

According to Professor Koeth's research, at the end of World War II, Nazi scientists sought to build a B-VIII-coded nuclear reactor in Berlin, which was then transferred to Haigerloch small town to continue to complete.

Nazi laboratory was quite small, lying beneath a church in the town of Haigerloch, which was a cellar and renovated potatoes. Today, the ruins of this underground facility are called the Atomkeller Museum, open daily to visitors.

Hundreds of blocks of uranium are clustered.(Photo: Physics Today).

There were 664 boxy uranium cubes, each with a 5cm-long edge, like a block sent to Professor Koeth, and all were hung together like a chandelier. These uranium blocks are placed at the core of the B-VIII reactor, outside is a metal-coated graphite shell. This shell was later determined to lie inside a large concrete water tank.

At the center of the box-shaped network of uranium is a neutron radioactive source. When neutrons bombard uranium-235 atoms in the box, atoms will separate, release huge energy and amount of neutrons more than three times.

This huge amount of newly produced neutrons will then split and continue to bombard more uranium atoms, thus creating a chain reaction. This nuclear reaction produces millions of times more energy than any other chemical reaction. Energy from nuclear reactions can be used to turn water into steam, run turbines and produce electricity.

'This experiment is the last attempt of Nazi Germany to build a nuclear reactor. But there is not enough uranium in the core for them to achieve that goal, ' Professor Koeth said, 'In order to achieve the level of uranium concentration needed for a nuclear reactor, Germany needs about half of the uranium mass. such'.

The Nazi nuclear facility in Haigerloch is now turned into a Museum.(Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

Although there were 664 uranium masses gathered in Haigerloch, the researchers were surprised to find that about 400 other boxy uranium at that time were taken to Germany and owned by the Gottow research organization. . They argue that if assembled and managed by the same place, German scientists might have had enough uranium to make the Haigerloch reactor work.

'If the Germans gathered their resources, instead of being held up by different research competitors, they could have built an active nuclear reactor , ' Ms. Hiebert said.

'Germany's nuclear program is divided and competitive despite being under General Leslie Groves, while the American Manhattan Project has concentration and cooperation,' said Hiebert. However, there are still many other factors affecting the success of the program. 'Even if the 400 masses of uranium were taken to Haigerloch for use in nuclear reactions, German scientists still need more heavy water to make the reactor work,' Professor Koeth said.

The Allies blew up the Nazi heavy water production facility inside the Vemork Hydroelectric Plant in Telemark, Norway in 1943. Next, Norwegian resistance forces sank the whole ship. heavy reserve water remaining when being brought to Germany.

Scientist working on Hitler's nuclear project, Werner Heisenberg.(Photo: Getty Images).

'As the birthplace of nuclear physicists and nearly two years of start-up before the Americans, the risk of a nuclear Germany at the end of the war was about to come true,' Professor Koethe said.

Among German scientists who worked on Hitler's nuclear project were Werner Heisenberg, a theoretical physicist who was famous for developing electronic mechanical fields. The Allied forces captured Heisenberg in 1945, while the reactor was dismantled by the US military. 664 uranium masses are transported to a secret location in the United States. Regarding the fate of 400 uranium blocks in Germany, they are thought to be dispersed to the black market after the war and most are missing.

The name Nininger recorded in a piece of paper accompanied by uranium sent to Professor Koeth was only Robert Nininger, a specialist working for the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bomb for the United States. According to the widow of Mr. Nininger, the late scientist once owned a piece of uranium before handing it over to a friend. 'Despite what we know about uranium, we still have no answer how it reached Maryland 70 years after being taken away by the Allies from southern Germany,' said Miriam Hiebert.

So far, researchers have identified the positions of 10 other uranium blocks, one of which turned out to be stored by Harvard University, while another is located at the Smithsonia Institute in Washington, DC.

Nazi uranium is stored at Harvard University.(Photo: Physics Today).

Professor Koeth had planned a museum to borrow his uranium blocks for display, while he and his research partner continued to search for the lost uranium.'We hope to tell as many people as possible, so if someone knows about these uranium blocks, contact the researchers ,' he called.