I came across a most curious reference in Mark Felton's book, "YANAGI: the Secret Underwater Trade Between Germany and Japan, 1942-1945", on page 180. It concerns the famous U-234 surrender ("NO, not the isotope, the Unterseeboot!") and the discovery of German high-tech en-route to Japan. Part of the cargo consisted of 10 Canisters (~560Kg/1,235lbs) of U-235 (YES, the isotope this time!), Uranium Oxide. He states that contrary to expectation, that it was not intended for atomic weapon development but rather, it was to be used as a catalyst for Methanol production destined for avaition 'fuel' [surely he means as an MW50 octane booster?].
....."Huh??" It's news to me that UO2 could be used as a catalyst for such a chemical reaction. In fact, the only catalytic employment of UO2 I've come across was some obscure soviet-era chemical process that had nothing to do with Methanol production. I am not, however, a chemical engineer so perhaps I'm wrong. Maybe someone who is can shed light on this?
What I do know is that there was a fascinating documetary video "Japan's Atomic Bomb" (still available) whose producers interviewed surviving Japanese nuclear scientists in which they related that they in making requests to Germany for supplies of Uranium Oxide they would 'camouflage' their request with a plausibly-sounding cover-story to make it seem credible even though they pretty much guessed that the Germans weren't fooled.
So, Methanol production, or Atomic bomb production? Can anyone definitively prove what U-234's U-235 was to have been used for?
....."Huh??" It's news to me that UO2 could be used as a catalyst for such a chemical reaction. In fact, the only catalytic employment of UO2 I've come across was some obscure soviet-era chemical process that had nothing to do with Methanol production. I am not, however, a chemical engineer so perhaps I'm wrong. Maybe someone who is can shed light on this?
What I do know is that there was a fascinating documetary video "Japan's Atomic Bomb" (still available) whose producers interviewed surviving Japanese nuclear scientists in which they related that they in making requests to Germany for supplies of Uranium Oxide they would 'camouflage' their request with a plausibly-sounding cover-story to make it seem credible even though they pretty much guessed that the Germans weren't fooled.
So, Methanol production, or Atomic bomb production? Can anyone definitively prove what U-234's U-235 was to have been used for?