An inter-country comparison of nuclear pile development during World War II
@article{Reed2020AnIC, title={An inter-country comparison of nuclear pile development during World War II}, author={B. Cameron Reed}, journal={The European Physical Journal H}, year={2020}, volume={46}, pages={1-22} }
Between the time of the discovery of nuclear fission in early 1939 and the end of 1946, approximately 90 “nuclear piles” were constructed in six countries. These devices ranged from simple graphite columns containing neutron sources but no uranium to structures as complex as the water-cooled 250-MW plutonium production reactors built at Hanford, Washington. This paper reviews and compares the properties of these piles.
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 23 REFERENCES
Uranium from German Nuclear Power Projects of the 1940s— A Nuclear Forensic Investigation
- Environmental ScienceAngewandte Chemie
- 2015
To determine the geographical origin of the uranium, the rare-earth-element content and the 87Sr/86Sr ratio were measured and provide evidence that the uranium was mined in the Czech Republic.
Heavy Water and the Wartime Race for Nuclear Energy, by F. Dahl
- Physics
- 1999
Prologue: Fornebu Airport, March 12, 1940. Manchester and Paris, 1919. The neutron. Heavy water. Artificial radioactivity. Nuclear fission. Heavy water revisited. The British initiative. Germany army…
A Neutronics Study of the 1945 Haigerloch B-VIII Nuclear Reactor
- Physics
- 2009
We present a neutronics study of the German B-VIII nuclear reactor, which was built in Haigerloch, Germany, between February and April 1945. We used the Monte Carlo code MCNP5 to estimate its…
The Search for Transuranium Elements and the Discovery of Nuclear Fission
- Physics
- 2000
Abstract. The synthesis of new, artificial elements beyond uranium was at the cutting-edge of physical research in the 1930s, and nearly half a dozen transuranium elements were reported between 1934…
Walther Bothe's Graphite: Physics, Impurities, and Blame in the German Nuclear Program
- PhysicsAnnalen der Physik
- 2020
The physics, experimental setup, and analysis of results involved in Walther Bothe and Peter Jensen's mistaken 1941 measurement of the capture cross section for thermal neutrons by carbon are…
German National Socialism and the Quest for Nuclear Power: 1939–1949
- History
- 1990
Introduction Part I. Lightning War: Nuclear fission The German nuclear power project Moderators, isotope separation, and uranium machines Nuclear power and lightning war Part II. The War Slows Down:…
Graveyard shift, Hanford, 28 September 1944: Henry W. Newson
- Physics
- 1982
An account is given of the surprise effects of 135Xe fission product poisoning in the initial operation of the first Hanford plutonium production reactor.
Experimental Production of a Divergent Chain Reaction
- Materials Science
- 1952
Except for minor editorial revisions this paper is the reproduction of a report written for the Metallurgical Laboratory of the University of Chicago almost ten years ago, after the experimental…
Tracking the journey of a uranium cube
- PhysicsPhysics Today
- 2019
A mysterious object led two physicists to investigate the German quest and failure to build a working nuclear reactor during World War II.
Physics at Columbia University: The genesis of the nuclear energy project
- Physics, Education
- 1955
It seems fitting to remember, on this 200th anniversary of Columbia University, the key role that the University played in the early experimentation and the organization of the early work that led to…