Hydrick will present documentation demonstrating that, 11 days after Nazi Germany's surrender, and more than a month before final assembly of the U.S. atomic bomb's uranium slugs, Marine guards escorted a Nazi submarine, or U-boat, U-234 into a New Hampshire naval yard.
According to Hydrick, the U-boat contained 560 kilograms of enriched uranium oxide, as well as other atomic-bomb components. Hydrick contends that the Manhattan Project commandeered these materials to complete both the Hiroshima uranium bomb and the Nagasaki plutonium bomb, winning World War II and ushering in the nuclear age.
Hydrick's presentation will position the contents of Nazi submarine U-234 as vital to the Manhattan Project's efforts. Was its arrival on American shores a pivotal event in atomic history, as Hydrick argues, or an unimportant footnote, as most traditional historians suggest? Hydrick will discuss this issue at Tuesday's talk.
The Bradbury Science Museum is located at 15th Street and Central Avenue in downtown Los Alamos. Museum hours apart from special events are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.
The Bradbury Science Museum is part of Los Alamos' Public Affairs Office.
For more information, contact Pat Berger at 665-0896.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and Washington Group International for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.