Ronald Richter
Ronald Richter ( 1909 in the Bohemian city of Falkenau ; † 1991 ) was an Austrian physicist who played a dubious role in Argentina in relation to the Argentine Huemul project and the Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica (CNEA). The aim of this project was to generate energy from nuclear fusion in the 1950s under the presidency of Juan Perón . Richter's project pretended to generate cheap energy in half-liter and liter containers.
nationality
Ronald Richter was born in Falkenau an der Eger (today's Sokolov), which at that time still belonged to the Habsburg Empire . He was of German descent, although it is not clear whether he was German or Austrian. In the early 1950s he then took on the Argentine citizenship, whereby the Argentine President Juan Perón made this possible through a change in law.
education
Richter attended the University of Prague , where he graduated in 1935. According to various sources, he received his doctorate in 1955, but according to other sources the doctorate was not awarded due to misinterpretation of his results. He concluded from his data that delta radiation is emitted from the earth, but had confused this with X-rays that were scattered on the ground.
Santos Mayo quoted Richard Gans in his memoirs as saying:
"Richter proposed a work at the University of Prague to detect" delta radiation "emitted by the earth. However, Professor Rausch von Traubenberg did not agree to the project. The "young genius", however, turned to another job and graduated in a different field. "
Kurt Sitte's memories, however, differ with regard to Richter's research under Professor Furth:
“... when I was working as an assistant to Professor Furth in the Department of Experimental Physics at Prague University, Richter came to us with a fantastic project. He had read (of course not in a science journal) about the discovery of a mysterious radiation, the "earth rays", which radiate from the interior of the earth and which caused a multitude of wonderful effects. That was what we wanted to research. He was very excited about his idea and it was very difficult to convince him (if we ever did) that the "evidence" quoted was fake. His doctoral thesis was not published. "
Career
Europe
Richter worked in Germany, England and France. During his dissertation at the University of Prague, Richter worked at the Falkenau chemical plants in his hometown of Eger (now Cheb in the Czech Republic ). He worked with electric arc furnaces on accurate methods of measurement and temperature control. Richter also discovered that the injection of heavy hydrogen ( deuterium ) caused a nuclear reaction, which he could measure and adjust with a Geiger counter .
During the Second World War , Richter worked in Germany with Max Steenbeck and Manfred von Ardenne on a particle accelerator that was copied by the Soviets after the war and known as the tokamak . After the war he worked with explosives for six months, among other things. He also met the aeronautical engineer Kurt Tank in London; Tank later emigrated to Argentina, where he was hired by Perón's government under the pseudonym Pedro Matthies.
Argentina
On the recommendation of Kurt Tank in 1947, Richter was invited to Argentina to develop a nuclear program for General Juan Perón . He found out that the German tokamak had been smuggled into Argentina and that Perón was desperately looking for an expert who could operate the machine. Richter brought with him knowledge of advanced particle accelerator technology used by the Nazis and was received by the German industrialist and ex-Nazi spy August Siebrecht. Siebrecht brought Richter to Cordoba , where Tank developed aircraft. He was interested in Richter's proposal to use nuclear energy for aircraft propulsion. In all his correspondence about the Huemul project, Richter mentioned that Tank, under his code name Professor Dr. Pedro Matthies. In 1949 Richter was recruited by Perón, who had convinced him to produce a nuclear fusion in a controlled manner using cheap raw materials in a process that released enormous amounts of cheap energy. This program then became known as the Huemul Project. Perón's support for Richter's idea was in line with the ideology of modernizing Argentina ("New Argentina"), but was not interested in the military use of nuclear fusion. Perón was convinced that a project promoted by a former Nazi scientist had to be successful. Because of his political disagreements with scientists from Argentina, such as Enrique Gaviola , Perón was reluctant to seek their advice on Richter's ideas. However, he gave Richter blank powers and appointed him as his personal representative in Bariloche . The total cost of the project was estimated at US $ 300 million (based on 2003 purchasing power). In 1951 Richter finally announced that he could ignite a controlled nuclear fusion under laboratory conditions; a claim that was later refuted. It turned out that Richter had ignited hydrogen in an arc. It then became apparent that Richter's project was a fake. Perón set up a committee of which José Balseiro, a former faculty member of the La Plata Institute of Physics , was a member to decide on the termination of Richter’s project. The committee analyzed Richter's work and came to the conclusion that the temperatures reached in the experiment were far too low to cause real thermonuclear fusion. After their results were sent to Perón in 1952, the project was stopped soon after.
After the project ended, Richter spent time outside Argentina, including in Libya. He then appears to have returned to Argentina, where he died in 1991; a brief notice of his death appeared in the microsemanario .
Project Huemul: Reactions and Consequences
On March 24, 1951, Perón announced to the international press that Argentina "produces atomic energy" and later awarded Richter the Order of Peronista. However, British scientists were reluctant to simply accept the claims of an unknown scientist without prior confirmation. Two secret projects have been launched in the United States - Sherwood and Matterhorn. A US intelligence report that was later released concluded that he (judge) could possibly be a mad genius [...] mentally in 1970 . However, his claims were soon found to be false and interest in them waned. After Perón was also deposed, the new government investigated the whereabouts of 1 billion Argentine pesos in Richter's project and arrested him. Secret British government records released after 30 years in 1983 suggest that Perón was considering occupying the Falkland Islands in 1951 , possibly because of his confidence that Argentina was the first country to use nuclear energy for industrial purposes.
credentials
- Alemann, Peter (1955). Esto It , last week of October 1955.
- Confalonieri, Orestes D. (1956). Peron contra Peron, Editorial Antygua, Buenos Aires.
- Eloy Martínez, Tomas (1996). Las Memorias del General. Editorial Planeta, Buenos Aires. ISBN 950-742-697-3 . See translated excerpt, below.
- Hugo Gambini: Historia del Peronismo . Editorial Planeta Buenos Aires, 1999, ISBN 950-49-0226-X .
- Joseph P. Farrell: Nazi International: The Nazis' Postwar Plan to Control the Worlds of Science, Finance, Space, and Conflict . Adventures Unlimited Press, 2009, ISBN 1-931882-93-2 . Extensive discussion in Chapter 10.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Mariscotti, 1985
- ↑ Archived copy . Archived from the original on December 25, 2005. Retrieved March 9, 2006.
- ↑ Gambini 1999, v.1, p. 396.
- ↑ Archived copy . Archived from the original on February 8, 2005. Retrieved May 17, 2008.
- ↑ Raffi Khatchadourian: A Star in a Bottle . In: The New Yorker . No. March 2014, March 3, 2014. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
- ^ New Scientist, February 3, 1983, p322
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Judge, Ronald |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian physicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1909 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Falkenau |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1991 |