[Petronski]

As I recall that program, there was not enough U-235 to build a gadget and worse still, the Germans had been telling the Japanese about Heisenberg's estimates of critical mass, which were grossly overestimated. The Japanese knew a device could be built, but did not have the final numbers (so to speak) to build one (nor, it seems, enough fuel for the core).


That's my recollection of that somewhat overwrought History Channel production. I stand ready to be corrected.

[nuke rocketeer]

"That's my recollection of that somewhat overwrought History Channel production."

That's putting it mildly! The what-ifs postulated on that particular show required several layers of what-ifs to even be somewhat plausible.

[KarlInOhio]

Also Heisenberg calculated that critical mass of U-235 was in the hundreds of tons rather than a few pounds. That caused the Nazis to give up on using U-235 for the bomb.