00:00Nazi Germany's final nuclear reactor lacked roughly half the uranium and heavy water it needed to operate.
00:06That shortfall reveals just how far the project was from producing a working reactor.
00:11Werner Heisenberg, the lead scientist, called the B-8 pile tantalizingly close to working,
00:17but new research shows it was nowhere near criticality.
00:20The reactor depended on heavy water from a single Norwegian plant,
00:24which Allied bombing destroyed in 1944, cutting off supplies.
00:29Researchers found the design required twice as much uranium and heavy water as Germany ever had.
00:35Attempts to substitute graphite failed.
00:37Because German graphite was unsuitable, even intact,
00:41the reactor's material needs exceeded Germany's entire wartime production capacity.
00:46This challenges fears that Nazi Germany was close to a nuclear breakthrough by 1945.
00:51Disclosure. This video contains stock footage and content created or enhanced using AI-assisted tools.
