What project was a scientific effort led by Germany to develop and produce nuclear weapons during World War II, and was subject to the Norweigian heavy water sabotage to prevent it?
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Norwegian heavy water sabotage The Norwegian heavy water sabotage (Bokmål: "Tungtvannsaksjonen" , Nynorsk: "Tungtvassaksjonen" ) was a series of operations undertaken by Norwegian saboteurs during World War II to prevent the German nuclear weapon project from acquiring heavy water (deuterium oxide), which could have been used by the Germans to produce nuclear weapons. In 1934, at Vemork, Norway, Norsk Hydro built the first commercial plant capable of producing heavy water as a byproduct of fertilizer production. It had a capacity of 12 tonnes per year. During World War II, the Allies decided to remove the heavy water supply and destroy the heavy water plant in order to inhibit the German development of nuclear weapons. Raids were aimed at the 60 MW Vemork power station at the Rjukan waterfall in Telemark, Norway.
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German nuclear weapon project The German nuclear weapon project (German: "Uranprojekt" ; informally known as the "Uranverein"; English: Uranium Society or Uranium Club ) was a scientific effort led by Germany to develop and produce nuclear weapons during World War II. The first effort started in April 1939, just months after the discovery of nuclear fission in December 1938, but ended only months later due to the German invasion of Poland, after many notable physicists were drafted into the "Wehrmacht".
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Axis powers The Axis powers (German: "Achsenmächte" , Japanese: 枢軸国 "Sūjikukoku", Italian: "Potenze dell'Asse" ), also known as the Axis and the Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis, were the nations that fought in World War II against the Allied forces. The Axis powers agreed on their opposition to the Allies, but did not completely coordinate their activity.
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Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control The Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control is a private non-profit, non-partisan organization, which, according to its website, "carries out research and public education designed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, chemical/biological weapons and long-range missiles. It is a private, non-profit, non-partisan foundation that operates in Washington, D.C. under the auspices of the University of Wisconsin."
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Karl Heinrich Emil Becker Karl Heinrich Emil Becker (14 September 1879 in Speyer – 8 April 1940 in Berlin) was a German weapons engineer and artillery general. He advocated and implemented close ties of the military to science for purposes of advanced weapons development. He was the head of the Army Ordnance Office, Senator of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, first president of the Reich Research Council, the first general officer to be a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, as well as being a professor at both the University of Berlin and the Berlin Technical University. He was an early and key supporter of the development of ballistic rockets as weapons. The military-scientific infrastructure he helped implement supported the German nuclear energy program, known as the Uranium Club. Being depressed over heavy criticism from Hitler for shortfalls in munitions production, he committed suicide in 1940. He was given a State funeral.
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Morgenthau Plan The Morgenthau Plan (German: "Morgenthau-Plan" ; ] ) by the Allied occupation of Germany following World War II was a proposal to eliminate Germany's ability to wage war by eliminating its arms industry, and the removal or destruction of other key industries basic to military strength. This included the removal or destruction of all industrial plants and equipment in the Ruhr. It was first proposed by United States Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. in a memorandum entitled "Suggested Post-Surrender Program for Germany".
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Project-706 Project-706, also known as Project-726 was a codename of a project to develop Pakistan's first atomic bomb using uranium. At the same time, Pakistani nuclear technology scientists and engineers gained expertise in the use of reactor-grade plutonium and successfully produced weapons grade plutonium by the early 1980s.
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Type 201 submarine The Type 201 was Germany's first class of military submarines built after World War II. They were built out of amagnetic steel to counter the threat of magnetic naval mines, but the material had been insufficiently tested and proved to be problematic in service with the Bundesmarine. Microscopic cracks in the pressure hull forced the cancellation of nine of the twelve ordered submarines and the early retirement of the three completed boats. They were replaced by the very similar Type 205 submarines, that were constructed with normal steel. Responsible for the design and construction was the Ingenieurkontor Lübeck (IKL) headed by Ulrich Gabler.
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Percy White (nuclear scientist) Percival Albert Frederick White OBE (16 July 1916 – 8 January 2013) was a British chemist, metallurgist and nuclear scientist who was involved in the creation and testing of Britain's first nuclear weapon during Operation Hurricane in 1952. He also made significant contributions to the advancement of explosives manufacturing, chemical engineering and civilian nuclear technology, and authored numerous books on engineering.
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Erich Schumann Erich Schumann (5 January 1898 – 25 April 1985) was a German physicist who specialized in acoustics and explosives, and had a penchant for music. He was a general officer in the army and a professor at the University of Berlin and the Technical University of Berlin. When Adolf Hitler came to power he joined the Nazi Party. During World War II, his positions in the Army Ordnance Office and the Army High Command made him one of the most powerful and influential physicists in Germany. He ran the German nuclear energy program from 1939 to 1942, when the army relinquished control to the Reich Research Council. His role in the project was obfuscated after the war by the German physics community’s defense of its conduct during the war. The publication of his book on the military’s role in the project was not allowed by the British occupation authorities. He was director of the Helmholtz Institute of Sound Psychology and Medical Acoustics.
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Hans Kopfermann Hans Kopfermann (26 April 1895, in Breckenheim near Wiesbaden – 28 January 1963, in Heidelberg) was a German atomic and nuclear physicist. He devoted his entire career to spectroscopic investigations, and he did pioneering work in measuring nuclear spin. During World War II, he worked on the German nuclear energy project, also known as the Uranium Club.
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Forschungsreaktor München II The Forschungs-Neutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II, research reactor Munich II) is the leading German research reactor. It is a world best reactor for neutron source, and is officially named "Forschungs-Neutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz" (research neutron source ...) in honor of the physicist Heinz Maier-Leibnitz who had conducted a highly successful research program at its predecessor, the "FRM I".
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Manhattan Project (disambiguation) The Manhattan Project was the code name given to the American effort to develop the first nuclear weapons during World War II, with assistance from the United Kingdom and Canada.
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British contribution to the Manhattan Project Britain contributed to the Manhattan Project by helping initiate the effort to build the first atomic bombs in the United States during World War II, and helped carry it through to completion in August 1945 by supplying crucial expertise. Following the discovery of nuclear fission in uranium, scientists Rudolf Peierls and Otto Frisch at the University of Birmingham calculated, in March 1940, that the critical mass of a metallic sphere of pure uranium-235 was as little as 1 to , and would explode with the power of thousands of tons of dynamite. The Frisch–Peierls memorandum prompted Britain to create an atomic bomb project, known as Tube Alloys. Mark Oliphant, an Australian physicist working in Britain, was instrumental in making the results of the British MAUD Report known in the United States in 1941 by a visit in person. Initially the British project was larger and more advanced, but after the United States entered the war, the American project soon outstripped and dwarfed its British counterpart. The British government then decided to shelve its own nuclear ambitions, and participate in the American project.
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Chicago Pile-3 Chicago Pile-3 (CP-3) was the first heavy water reactor in the world, going critical on 15 May 1944. It was used in the experimental physics work of the Metallurgical Laboratory for the Manhattan Project. CP-3 was in operation from 1943-1954 and was built near Palos Hills, Illinois on the former (i.e., original) site of Argonne National Laboratory. The site is now known as the Site A/Plot M Disposal Site and is situated within Red Gate Woods, part of the Cook County Forest Preserve system.
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Anti-nuclear movement in Germany The anti-nuclear movement in Germany has a long history dating back to the early 1970s when large demonstrations prevented the construction of a nuclear plant at Wyhl. The Wyhl protests were an example of a local community challenging the nuclear industry through a strategy of direct action and civil disobedience. Police were accused of using unnecessarily violent means. Anti-nuclear success at Wyhl inspired nuclear opposition throughout Germany, in other parts of Europe, and in North America. A few years later protests raised against the NATO Double-Track Decision in Germany and were followed by the foundation of the Green party.
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Operation Otto Operation Otto (also known as Plan Otto) was the code name for two independent plans by Nazi Germany. The 1938 plan was to occupy Austria; the second envisaged an attack on the Soviet Union and was developed from late July 1940.
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German Type II submarine The Type II U-boat was designed by Nazi Germany as a coastal U-boat, modeled after the CV-707 submarine, which was designed by the Dutch dummy company NV Ingenieurskantoor voor Scheepsbouw den Haag (I.v.S) (set up by Germany after World War I in order to maintain and develop German submarine technology and to circumvent the limitations set by the Treaty of Versailles) and built in 1933 by the Finnish Crichton-Vulcan shipyard in Turku, Finland. It was too small to undertake sustained operations far away from the home support facilities. Its primary role was found to be in the training schools, preparing new German naval officers for command. It appeared in four sub-types.
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Festung Norwegen Festung Norwegen (Fortress Norway) was the German term for the heavy defence and fortification system of Norway during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany in World War II. Some, including "Reichskommissar" Josef Terboven, thought that these fortifications would serve effectively as a last perimeter of defense of the Third Reich in the event of Allied victory on the continent. It turned out that they kept German troops away from mainland Europe and thus helped to end the war more quickly.
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Armed Forces Special Weapons Project The Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP) was a United States military agency responsible for those aspects of nuclear weapons remaining under military control after the Manhattan Project was succeeded by the Atomic Energy Commission on 1 January 1947. These responsibilities included the maintenance, storage, surveillance, security and handling of nuclear weapons, as well as supporting nuclear testing. The AFSWP was a joint organization, staffed by the United States Army, United States Navy and United States Air Force; its chief was supported by deputies from the other two services. Major General Leslie R. Groves, the former head of the Manhattan Project, was its first chief.
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Operation Gold Operation Gold (also known as Operation Stopwatch by the British) was a joint operation conducted by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in the 1950s to tap into landline communication of the Soviet Army headquarters in Berlin using a tunnel into the Soviet-occupied zone. This was a much more complex variation of the earlier Operation Silver project in Vienna. Soviet authorities were informed about Operation Gold from the very beginning by their mole George Blake and "discovered" the tunnel in 1956.
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Nuremberg trials The Nuremberg trials (German: "die Nürnberger Prozesse") were a series of military tribunals held by the Allied forces under international law and the laws of war after World War II. The trials were most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, judicial and economic leadership of Nazi Germany, who planned, carried out, or otherwise participated in the Holocaust and other war crimes. The trials were held in the city of Nuremberg, Germany, and their decisions marked a turning point between classical and contemporary international law.