Study clarifies why Nazi Germany's nuclear program failed
New research confirms that the German nuclear project lacked the uranium and heavy water necessary to achieve criticality, refuting claims of proximity to a working reactor.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nexus has concluded that the Nazi German nuclear program was not close to achieving a working reactor at the end of World War II. Researchers determined that the project lacked sufficient quantities of uranium and heavy water to support the design being utilized, contradicting claims made by project lead Werner Heisenberg.
The research was prompted by the discovery of uranium cubes used in the German B8 pile. University of Maryland physicist Timothy Koeth, a co-author of the paper, initiated the investigation after acquiring one of the cubes in 2013. Only 14 of these historical artifacts are known to exist today.
As previously covered by Ars Technica, researchers have tracked these cubes across the United States, finding them in collections ranging from the Smithsonian Institution to Harvard University. The physical analysis of these components confirms that the German nuclear effort was fundamentally hampered by material shortages.