Brief
Study finds Nazi Germany far from building nuclear reactor, contradicting Heisenberg claim
Analysis of archival material and uranium samples indicates the B8 pile needed twice the uranium and heavy water available to the Nazis.
By Felo News Desk · Published
Nazi Germany was nowhere near constructing a functional nuclear reactor in 1945, a new study published in PNAS Nexus concludes, countering physicist Werner Heisenberg's post‑war assertion that the effort was a "near miss".
The research examined two cubes of natural uranium from the German project, alongside historical records, technical reports and correspondence. It determined that the B8 pile, the final German reactor design, would have required twice as much uranium and twice the wartime heavy‑water output of the Norsk Hydro plant in Norway. The study also found that German‑controlled graphite was unsuitable as a moderator.
Heisenberg had claimed in a 1947 Nature article that the Germans were "just insufficient" in achieving self‑sustaining fission, lacking only a "relatively small amount of uranium". The new calculations suggest he "significantly underestimated the materials required".
While the United States completed the Manhattan Project and deployed atomic bombs on Japan, the German effort failed to acquire the necessary fissile material, according to the authors.
Key facts
- The B8 pile would have needed twice the uranium and heavy water Germany possessed. (independent.co.uk)
- German‑controlled graphite was not a viable moderator for a reactor. (independent.co.uk)
- Heisenberg claimed in 1947 that Germany was close to a working reactor, a claim now challenged. (independent.co.uk)
Sources
- [1] independent.co.uk — originally reported as “Nazi Germany was much further from building a nuclear reactor than Heisenberg claimed”
