Ask HN: Nazi “atomic pile” criticality in WWII?

2 points

7 years ago

I had seen on a television documentary where men with radiation detectors entered an overgrown tunnel entrance in a German forest, and in the tunnel the radiation levels became extremely high. I had seen photos of Allied dismantling of a prototype Nazi power reactor on Wikipedia here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_nuclear_weapons_program#/media/File:German_Experimental_Pile_-_Haigerloch_-_April_1945.jpg

however this photo appears to show an industrial prototype and not a physics experiment, and criticality had not been achieved at this facility. So, I wondered if the underground radiation was from the original research prototype.

WWII nuclear scientists from Germany were secretly recorded conversing after after the defeat of the Nazis, and of course they were unaware of the U.S. "atomic pile" criticality at the University of Chicago. In the transcripts of their discussions, they refer to an "engine" which seems to be their term for a power reactor. I see the following statement on page 12 of the transcripts at http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/pdf/eng/English101.pdf

"History will record that the Americans and the English made a bomb, and that at the same time the Germans, under the HITLER regime, produced a workable engine."

which tells me they were all aware of a research reactor having achieved criticality. Does this seem correct?

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