Uranium from German experiments during the Second World War was not used in a nuclear reactor for any appreciable amount of time.
Maria Wallenius at the European Commission Joint Research Centre's Institute for Transuranium Elements in Karlsruhe, Germany, and her colleagues did a forensic analysis of uranium samples (pictured) used in 1940s experiments in Germany. They looked for trace elements and isotopes of uranium and plutonium that are created when neutrons released during nuclear fission smash into other atoms.
They traced the origin of the uranium to a mine in the Czech Republic, and found that isotope ratios matched those found in natural uranium ore. The samples were never used in experiments that reached the critical mass necessary for sustained nuclear fission.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. http://doi.org/f3f7js (2015)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Forensics reveals uranium's past. Nature 525, 292 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/525292c
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/525292c
