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On the other hand, we were handed on a silver platter a huge supply of hand sorted pitchblende from the Belgium Congo, with an average uranium content of 60-65%
by hga 10y ago
On the other hand, we were handed on a silver platter a huge supply of hand sorted pitchblende from the Belgium Congo, with an average uranium content of 60-65% (!!!), without that we wouldn't have finished in time to finish the war.
All due to one foresighted Belgium who had learned would be a very bad idea to let the Nazis get their hands on it, and arranged shipment of a lot of it to America. Where it sat in a warehouse until Grove's men showed up and were actually serious about buying the stuff, after e.g. the State Department and everyone else he'd contacted had blown him off, this is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Sengier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Sengier but the greater story can be found in Rhodes' and Groves' books.
- blackflame7000 10y agoIts not the Uranium content that matters, it's the ability to extract U235 from U238.
- hga 10y agoIt counted because we had enough raw uranium to, indeed, separate one bomb's worth of U-235 in time, but more importantly to fuel the natural uranium reactors in which we bred plutonium, which got into high gear faster than the former. By comparison, in the link I included is the statement that "To illustrate the uniqueness of Sengier’s stockpile, after the war the MED and the AEC considered ore containing three-tenths of 1 percent as a good find.", which comports with my memory.