Recent Developments
A book by Rainer Karlsch, Hitlers Bombe, published in 2005, alleged that Diebner's team conducted the first successful nuclear weapon test of some type (employing hollow charges for ignition) of nuclear-related device in Ohrdruf, Thuringia on 4 March 1945. However, Karlsch has been criticized for displaying "a catastrophic lack of understanding of physics" by physicist Michael Schaaf, who is himself the author of an earlier book about Nazi atomic research, while Karlsch himself has acknowledged that he lacked absolute proof for the claims made in his book.
A similar project was described in David Irving's 1967 book The Virus House, where it was claimed that some of Diebner's researchers had unsuccessfully attempted to produce fusion using conventional explosives and heavy paraffin as a deuterium carrier. Irving also describes a further experiment in 1943 carried out by Trinks and Sachsse, which used a hollow sphere of silver filled with deuterium, imploded by conventional explosives. Again it was unsuccessful, no trace of radioactivity being produced.
Science historian Mark Walker also published his analysis in 2005, and in 2005 Karlsch and Walker published an article on the controversial historical evidence, briefly referenced in the article. The Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB, Federal Physical and Technical Institute) tested soil samples in the area of the alleged test, and in 2006 it issued its results: keinen Befund (nothing found). Karlsch published a follow-on book with Heinko Petermann to elaborate on issues raised in his first book.
Read more about this topic: German Nuclear Energy Project
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