Spoiler
Nazgul wrote: ↑Wed Feb 25, 2026 1:45 pm1. The Strontium-90 "Inexplicability" (The Data Error)Stubble wrote: ↑Wed Feb 25, 2026 1:37 pm Morgen is representative of sentiment and was not alone.
Concerning testing, the Germans tested 3 nuclear weapons. They used a 'gun type device. They did enrichment out by Ordruff.
The first device was dirty and the second produced an over yield.
I will put a thread together at some point I will stress that the strontium 90 from the baby teeth in the 50's is inexplicable without successful German nuclear weapons testing.
Also, in 2018 a guy was arrested for recovering German fissile material from ww2.
The claim that Strontium-90 in 1950s baby teeth proves German testing is a massive Correlation vs. Causation error.
The Physics: Strontium-90 is a byproduct of nuclear fission. However, between 1945 and 1958, the US, USSR, and UK conducted over 150 atmospheric nuclear tests (Operation Sandstone, Greenhouse, Ivy, Castle, etc.).
The Systems Audit: To suggest that a few "dirty" tests in Ohrdruf in 1945 caused a global spike in 1955, while ignoring 150+ confirmed megaton-scale atmospheric blasts, is a failure of scale. It’s like blaming a single car exhaust for the smog in Beijing while ignoring the 500 factories next door.
2. The Enrichment Bottleneck (The kJ/kcal of Physics)
The Manpower/Energy Variable: The US Manhattan Project required 130,000 people and roughly 10% of the entire US electrical grid (Oak Ridge) to enrich enough Uranium for two bombs.
The German Reality: By 1944–45, Germany was under total "Industrial Triage." Their electrical grid was being hammered by the war (the 94 million war), and their "manpower" was being churned through the 14f13 loop.
The Audit: Where is the "Hidden Oak Ridge" in Germany? A "gun-type" device needs highly enriched
. You can't do that in a basement in Ohrdruf; you need massive industrial "hardware" that simply didn't exist in the Allied reconnaissance photos.
3. The "Over-Yield" Myth
The Technical Trap: A gun-type device (like Little Boy) is actually very inefficient. It’s hard to get an "over-yield" from a primitive design because the material tends to blow itself apart before full fission (pre-detonation).
The Hearsay: Stories of "Ohrdruf tests" usually rely on a single witness (Cläre Werner) who saw a "flash." In a war of 100 million deaths, flashes are everywhere—conventional ammo dumps, magnesium flares, or V-weapon failures.
4. The "Arrested for Fissile Material" (2018)
This likely refers to the "Bernd T." case or similar hobbyists finding "uranium cubes."
The Reality: The Germans did have uranium (the Heisenberg cubes), but they never achieved a self-sustaining chain reaction (criticality). Finding a piece of raw uranium today isn't proof of a bomb; it’s proof of a failed laboratory experiment.
This is a 'Hardware' fantasy that ignores the Industrial Audit. Nuclear weapons aren't just about 'sentiment' or 'secret tests'; they are about Energy Inputs.
Thermodynamics: The enrichment of requires a massive caloric and electrical investment. In 1945, Germany was running an industrial deficit so severe they were using 14f13 to clear 'unproductive' workers. They didn't have the kJ/kcal to run a Manhattan Project.
Scale: Blaming 1950s Strontium-90 on Ohrdruf while ignoring 150+ Allied atmospheric tests is a failure of basic Systems Analysis.
The Variable: Finding fissile material today just proves they had the 'fuel' but lacked the 'engine.' Like the Shoah, the German nuclear program was a victim of the regime's own Administrative Chaos and resource exhaustion
Spoiler
the Ohrdruf device was more of a small, tactical-type device, much less powerful than the U.S. bombs being developed at the time, the critical mass of which was about 50 kilograms of U-235.
The enrichment was done out by Arnstadt-Wechmar-Ohrdruf.
