Thread

Nazi Germany had no hope of making an atomic bomb, uranium cubes reveal

137 points · 121 comments · xqcgrek2

WalterBright · 1790963993 · focus · HN ↗
It's generally forgotten that Japan was also developing a nuclear bomb. They were a long ways from making a viable one, though. It was abandoned after the surrender.
1. colechristensen · 1790966157 · focus · HN ↗
  Hideki Yukawa was the first Japanese Nobel Prize winner for his work on strong-force related physics in the 1930s.
  >It was abandoned after the surrender.
  Japan is strongly believed to be on the order of months away from assembling a nuclear weapon, and not just one, they have the materials for many. For them it is not geopolitically useful to actually finish a weapon, but they are more than capable.
  1. buildsjets · 1790966956 · focus · HN ↗
    Do you have a reliable source you can share which supports that claim? Because el wiki says nothing of the sort. It discusses two main projects, "Ni-Go" and "F-Go", neither of which successfully enriched fissile material. One was built but did not operate successfully, the other was not built.
    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_nuclear_weapons_programs" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_nuclear_weapons_progr...
    rawling · 1790967096 · focus · HN ↗
    > Today, Japan is considered to be a latent or threshold nuclear state, capable of developing weapons in a short timespan. It is unique among non-nuclear weapons states in that it possesses a full nuclear fuel cycle and plutonium stockpile, as part of its civilian nuclear energy industry, and advanced developments in the industries necessary to make nuclear weapons.
    mmmBacon · 1790970884 · focus · HN ↗
    While your comment is true today. It doesn’t support the GP’s claim that Japan was near a nuclear weapon at the end of WW2 and only lacked the will to do so.
    OJFord · 1790971951 · focus · HN ↗
    That was not the claim. They said 'is on the order of months away', not 'was'.
    colechristensen · 1791135470 · focus · HN ↗
    correct

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