The roots of the 'Uranium Cube' at the university were at the reactor development of the Nazi Germany
In the summer of 2013, a cube made of
Tracking the journey of a uranium cube: Physics Today: Vol 72, No 5
https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/PT.3.4202
In the note attached to the uranium cube discovered at the University of Maryland, 'The reactor came from the reactor that Hitler tried to build. Gift of Ninninger. Thing) was written. Intriguing Koeth and his colleague Miriam Hiebert decided to explore the roots of the cube.
The Manhattan Project of the United States is known as nuclear power development during World War II. The Manhattan Project finally succeeded in producing an atomic bomb, but in Germany, experiments were conducted to use nuclear energy as a weapon. In the Manhattan Project, many scientists were gathered in one place and jointly worked on nuclear power development, while in Germany the researchers were divided into three groups and each was developing. One of the most famous German researchers involved in nuclear development is the Berlin-based group Werner Heisenberg .
Germany has been conducting research earlier than the United States, but the path to creating a sustainable reactor has been slow. The reason is that there were factors such as competition over limited resources, competition among rivals, and inefficient scientific management.
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Even in the 1944 winter when the Allied aggression began, German researchers said, 'The first successful construction of a sustainable reactor will give it a reputation as a researcher group,' said I was thinking, I was anxious to build a nuclear reactor to reach critical conditions . Researchers who fled Berlin moved to a town in Heigerloch in southwestern Germany and continued their research on nuclear power.
In the lab in the cave, the team of Heisenberg et al. Performed a final experiment called 'B-VIII'. In this experiment, the reactor was constructed by preparing 664 pieces of uranium cubes each weighing approximately 5 pounds, and connecting them like a chandelier with a chain and sinking them in a heavy water tank.
The uranium cubes discovered by Koeth et al. Are not only the same in size as those used in the experiment, but the bubbles on the surface of the cube are consistent with those formed by the initial uranium
Next, Koeth et al. Examined the mystery, 'why did the uranium cube used in the B-VIII experiment reach the United States?' During World War II, the United States was carrying out an Arsos operation to obtain and analyze science and technology on the Axis side, and experts were analyzing articles and materials seized from the front line. For the United States, which had been developing nuclear power under the Manhattan Project, it was a major focus on how much German nuclear power was advancing.
When Allied forces invaded southern Germany, Haigerloch researchers buried the uranium cube used in the B-VIII experiment in the field and carried out a camouflage operation such as filling heavy water in the tar. However, when the researchers were detained in 1945, the hidden uranium cube was discovered and exported to Paris and the United States.
Although the reactor was not successfully constructed in the B-VIII experiment, it is known that the reactor can be maintained in a critical state by making the process larger. According to calculations, if you increase the uranium cube by about 50%, the Heisenberg team has succeeded in building the reactor. At that time Germany had about 400 pieces of uranium cubes owned by another research group, and it might have been possible to realize the reactor construction if added together.
by Kelly Michals
The name 'Ninninger' is written in a note attached to the key that reveals the later of the uranium cube that arrived in the United States. Koeth examines books from used bookstores and eventually arrives at a person named Robert Nininger, who died in Maryland in 2004, who has a different spelling. Mr. Nininger was appointed a temporary real estate manager in Marley Hill area, which was involved in uranium procurement under the Manhattan Project in 1945, and I think that there was an opportunity to obtain uranium cubes exported from Germany because of that relationship. To be
Koeth talked with Nininger's widow and also found out that Nininger had given him a cube before his Uranium cube was stored at the University of Maryland, and then another one. Similar to Nininger's, there are about 10 uranium cubes transported from Germany at the end of World War II throughout the United States. Similar uranium cubes could exist in university laboratories, cellars and private collections, and Koeth said he was also interested in the path followed by the other cubes.
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