View Single Post
Old 12-22-09, 07:51 AM   #97
Catfish
Dipped Squirrel Operative
 
Catfish's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: ..where the ocean meets the sky
Posts: 17,802
Downloads: 38
Uploads: 0


Default

Hi,
imho building the atom bomb would have been possible, but it was not done - maybe because of the delays of the german scientists, or because of lacking infrastructure, or support due to the bombing of facilities being vital for such an effort. But they were on their way :

About the "capture" of the already surrendering U-234:

" ... The fact that she had a half ton of uranium oxide on board was covered up and remained classified for the duration of the Cold War;[8] a classified US intelligence summary of 19 May merely listed U-234's cargo as including "a/c [aircraft], drawings, arms, medical supplies, instruments, lead, mercury, caffeine, steels, optical glass and brass."[9]

The uranium subsequently disappeared, most likely finding its way to the Manhattan Project's Oak Ridge diffusion plant;

it has been calculated that it would have yielded approximately 7.7 pounds (3.5 kg) of U-235 after processing, around 20% of what would have been required to arm a contemporary fission weapon.[10]


So it is well possible that this very uranium from Germany found it's way to the US Manhattan project, and "ironically" helped to bomb Japan - the country were this U-boat's payload including scientists were initially intended to go, for the japanese war effort.

Greetings
Catfish

Last edited by Catfish; 12-22-09 at 11:25 AM.
Catfish is offline   Reply With Quote