The method of establishing the origin of uranium cubes, which are believed to be disappeared after the end of the Second World War, can help the law enforcement agencies in the prevention of illegal turnover of nuclear materials. This is reported by New Scientist.
During World War II, a race in the development of nuclear technologies was conducted, and the United States also participated in it, since it was afraid that Germany the first in the world would become the owner of weapons of mass destruction of a new generation. The Nazis had two programs for creating nuclear weapons. One of them assumed the creation of a test nuclear reactor. Initially, the scientific group, which was engaged in the development of the reactor, was based in Berlin. In 1945, scientists led by the creator of quantum mechanics and the laureate of the Nobel Prize in Physics by Werner Geisenberg arrived in the city
Hyherloh, where the last experiment was held. Installation consisted of 664 uranium cubes with a total weight of 1525 kilograms, they were surrounded by a graphite neutron reflector retarder weighing 10 tons.
Another German researcher Kurt Dibner worked in another experimental laboratory and developed a scheme of a nuclear explosive device in the form of a ball from an explosive, inside of which uranium cubes were located.
When the laboratory in Hyherlohe was captured by American and British troops in 1945, more than 600 cubes of uranium were sent to the United States. Some of the cubes were probably used in American developments to create nuclear weapons, while the others belong to collectors and research institutions to date. However, hundreds of cubes from Diber laboratory disappeared. Their searches until recent were difficult.
In this regard, scientists presented a new way of identifying Nazi cubes from uranium at the meeting of the American Chemical Society. This was helped by one cube, which is kept in the Pacific Northwestern National Lab (PNLL) in the United States. Dr. John Schwantes (Dr Jon Schwantes), who led the new study, noted that no one knows how the cube was in the institution. The team of scientists also worked with the University of Maryland, who has access to several other cubes.
Scientists turned to the method of radio equipment, a nuclear version of the method, which is used by geologists to determine the age of carbon samples based on the content of radioactive isotopes. The principle is also similar to the method of determining the historical period of artifacts, which is used in archeology.
“When the cubes were first cast, they contained quite pure uranium. Over time, the radioactive decay converted part of the uranium in the thorium and protactinium,” scientists explained.