General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Re: "Das Boot" TV series. And Japanese officers/Plutonium on board.
Posted by:
Simon Gunson
()
Date: May 05, 2007 02:29AM
Just to enlarge on Kurt's comments, the story of U-234's cargo has become enhanced by many authors in recent years. It is said that the U-boat had infra-red switches necessary for the co-ordinated triggering of a Plutonium A-bomb. I don't know the truth or otherwise of this.
The Uranium oxide aboard came from a mine in Joachimsthal, Czechoslovakia. It was refinesd to yellowcake at the Auer Gesselschaft refinery in Oranienberg. Yellowcake is Uranium oxide which is unenriched.
Germany did have the technology to enrich Uranium through the Harteck process developed since 1942. However allied spying and bombing combined frustrated every attempt to set up enrichment plants (pity Netanz in Iran is still standing).
The fact is that Heisenberg was unable to create a sustain nuclear reaction and without a reactor Plutonium could not have been harvested from nuclear waste.
We now know that it would take a couple of years of reactor operation and a further two years to cool spent fuel in cooling ponds before Plutonium can be chemically separated.
Even then we also know now that if the conditions aren't just right the Plutonium will become contaminated by too much Pu240 which is what fizzled the October 2006 nuclear bomb test in North Korea.
On the other hand Japan seems to have successfully test blasted at least one A-bomb (ironically) near Hungnam in what is now North Korea, just two days after the bombing of Hiroshima.
Japan appears to have benefitted from Nazi centrifuge technology during 1945 and various shipments of uranium oxide by U-boats which commenced from late 1943.
The Uranium oxide aboard came from a mine in Joachimsthal, Czechoslovakia. It was refinesd to yellowcake at the Auer Gesselschaft refinery in Oranienberg. Yellowcake is Uranium oxide which is unenriched.
Germany did have the technology to enrich Uranium through the Harteck process developed since 1942. However allied spying and bombing combined frustrated every attempt to set up enrichment plants (pity Netanz in Iran is still standing).
The fact is that Heisenberg was unable to create a sustain nuclear reaction and without a reactor Plutonium could not have been harvested from nuclear waste.
We now know that it would take a couple of years of reactor operation and a further two years to cool spent fuel in cooling ponds before Plutonium can be chemically separated.
Even then we also know now that if the conditions aren't just right the Plutonium will become contaminated by too much Pu240 which is what fizzled the October 2006 nuclear bomb test in North Korea.
On the other hand Japan seems to have successfully test blasted at least one A-bomb (ironically) near Hungnam in what is now North Korea, just two days after the bombing of Hiroshima.
Japan appears to have benefitted from Nazi centrifuge technology during 1945 and various shipments of uranium oxide by U-boats which commenced from late 1943.
