![]() Sadly, nobody thought to take into account the isotopic composition of uranium. Uranium, the most promising candidate, could never be made to undergo fission as scientists predicted it should have. Without the funding to do this properly, researchers made a number of critical mistakes. In order to make the fuel, a fissile ore must be processed in a complex series of chemical treatments, refinements, enrichment and extraction methods. It isn’t easy to create a stable nuclear reaction. Further crippling research into nuclear fission were fears about radioactivity, which kept a good number of scientists away from the various attempts made to construct atomic piles. There was no massive government-funded effort to try and crack the problem, and the pursuit of fission remained a relatively small endeavour. Governments and leaders were not willing to believe present day scientists. However, there was no star of the scientific community to drive home just how powerful this discovery could be. However, Einstein mysteriously, and sensationally, disappeared partway through the Solway International Physics Conference in Brussels, and his work languished, unattended to by modern physics.Ītomic science still advanced in his absence, and it wasn’t long before theories in quantum mechanics postulated that it might be possible to “split” the nuclei of larger atoms, and release large quantities of energy. Work done earlier in the century by the physicist Albert Einstein had demonstrated the equivalence of mass and energy, a fact that theoretically meant one could convert a small amount of matter into a huge amount of energy. If there is one phrase that could be used to sum up the entire search for atomic fission in the west, it is this: “lacking direction”. An Allied physicist sceptical of the practicality of nuclear fission "Atomic energy has been, is now, and forever will be the power source of the future." The search for atomic fission has proven to be the biggest wild goose chase of 20th century science.” - Robert Oppenheimer – Presentation given at the 1951 annual Massachusetts Applied Sciences Conference. “Gentlemen, I think it’s time we face the facts.
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