W
Wingknut
Guest
Hi folks,
Embark on this with some trepidation (speaking as a firm sceptic about claims that Nazi Germany came anywhere near developing a functioning nuclear weapon or even knowing how such might be done) but digging around for stuff on Richard Rhodes and the Japanese nuclear efforts, I found this quote from Carey Sublette:
"Historical footnote: During World War II, the idea occurred in Germany that convergent shock waves and collapsing shells might focus enough energy to allow conventional high explosives to ignite limited fusion reactions. This idea was probably inspired by Gudderly's work in converging shock waves, and certainly by the Allied attempts to destroy the heavy water plant at Vemork, Norway. Since German physicists considered fission weapons to be beyond reach during the current war, they concluded that the Allied interest in heavy water must be due its application in high explosive weapons. The Germans actually checked craters left by the British "Grand Slam", the largest conventional bomb dropped during the war, to discover whether its unusual power was due to fusion boosting. Researchers in the U.S., Russia, Poland and Canada have successfully generated fusion neutrons through convergent shock waves. No one has ever released significant amounts of energy this way, although the theoretical possibility of doing so remains."
http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq8.html#nfaq8.2
I have never seen several of these claims before and cannot seem to find a source. Any ideas?
Thanks, 'Wingknut'.
[EDIT: Re-jigged the original thread-title, as my first attempt expressed almost the exact opposite of what I meant to say ...)
Embark on this with some trepidation (speaking as a firm sceptic about claims that Nazi Germany came anywhere near developing a functioning nuclear weapon or even knowing how such might be done) but digging around for stuff on Richard Rhodes and the Japanese nuclear efforts, I found this quote from Carey Sublette:
"Historical footnote: During World War II, the idea occurred in Germany that convergent shock waves and collapsing shells might focus enough energy to allow conventional high explosives to ignite limited fusion reactions. This idea was probably inspired by Gudderly's work in converging shock waves, and certainly by the Allied attempts to destroy the heavy water plant at Vemork, Norway. Since German physicists considered fission weapons to be beyond reach during the current war, they concluded that the Allied interest in heavy water must be due its application in high explosive weapons. The Germans actually checked craters left by the British "Grand Slam", the largest conventional bomb dropped during the war, to discover whether its unusual power was due to fusion boosting. Researchers in the U.S., Russia, Poland and Canada have successfully generated fusion neutrons through convergent shock waves. No one has ever released significant amounts of energy this way, although the theoretical possibility of doing so remains."
http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq8.html#nfaq8.2
I have never seen several of these claims before and cannot seem to find a source. Any ideas?
Thanks, 'Wingknut'.
[EDIT: Re-jigged the original thread-title, as my first attempt expressed almost the exact opposite of what I meant to say ...)
