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Eavesdropping on Hitler’s Reich
this terrifically radioactive material.” “Nevertheless, “ he continued
a few moments later, “ one could say that if they have done it with a
Maschine of one ton, they will be able to take out a not-inconsiderable
amount of material: for instance, if 1% conversion has taken
place, then they can take out 1% – that is to say 10 kilos of ’94’
[plutonium] out of the machine.”
Harteck was dubious. Heisenberg finally dismissed the idea: “I
do not believe that the Americans could have done it. They would
have had to have had, shall we say, a machine running at least not
later than 1942 and they would have had to have had this machine
running for at least a year and then they would have had to have
done all this chemistry.”
Harteck, unaware of how accurate were these estimates, agreed
this was highly improbable.
BAGGE: . . . On the other hand, it does not fit in that [the Allies state
that] it was only in 1941 that the element ’Pluto’ was discovered. . .
WIRTZ: Well, I am prepared to take on a bet that they have separated
isotopes.
HEISENBERG: Yes, I will of course not deny it. But there are now
three quite clear ways in which they can have done it, and only three:
isotope separation, proto actinium, and a Maschine with D 2 0 [Heavy
Water] and element ’94’ [plutonium].
WIRTZ: My method is, a Maschine with [enriched uranium and]
light water, and the separation of element ’94’. I do not believe that they
have so much heavy water at their disposal that they could really have
many working uranium machines.
On August 13, Otto Hahn, the chemist, was heard stating his
view to Wirtz: “Element ’93’ decays in two or three days into ’94’.
They have of course ’94’. This is obviously plutonium. . . ’93’ can be
quantitatively separated from ’92’. Strassmann and I have worked
out the “uantitative separation.”
At the end of August1945 Major Rittner let Otto Hahn see the issue
of the American magazine Life devoted to the bomb; there were
several photographs of the world’s leading atomic scientists, inclu-
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