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Updated: Jun 12, 2026

Laser-heating and Radiance Spectrometry for the Study of Nuclear Materials in Conditions Simulating a Nuclear Power Plant Accident
Published on: December 14, 2017
Wartime nuclear weapons research in Germany and Japan
Walter E Grunden1, Mark Walker, Masakatsu Yamnazaki
1Bowling Green State University, Department of History, Williams Hall, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA. wgrund@bgnet.bgsu.edu
Abstract:
This article compares military research projects during the Second World War to develop nuclear weapons in Germany and Japan, two countries who lost the war and failed to create nuclear weapons. The performance and motivations of the scientists, as well as the institutional support given the work, is examined, explaining why, in each case, the project went as far as it did-but no further. The story is carried over into the postwar period, when the two cultures and their scientists had to deal with the buildup of nuclear weapons during the cold war and the new nuclear power industry.
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