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. Lumich · 1790977488 · focus · HN ↗
    « For them it is not geopolitically useful to actually finish a weapon »
    Why, they could take their revenge, couldn't they.
    This whole thing is stories built upon stories built upon stories. It's stories all the way down till you reach The World Set Free by British propaganda writer H.G. Wells, published in 1913–14 as part of the British war propaganda preparations against Germany. I don't recommend the book, it's psychologically dull and constructed, but that's where Leo Szilárd picked up the idea of an “atomic superbomb” in 1932 when reading the novel, which led to the Einstein letter in 1939. Well, according to the story anyway.
    WalterBright · 1790984509 · focus · HN ↗
    A more reliable account is "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Rhodes.
    Lumich · 1791119875 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]

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