23 points rbanffy 2 days ago 2 comments
thisisauserid 2 days ago | parent
This is central to the plot of D: Heavy Water, Neal Stephenson's second installment of the Bomb Light Trilogy.
leonidasrup 14 minutes ago | parent
Boron contamination of graphite also slowed the Manhattan Project:
" Fermi writes that "The results of this experiment was [sic] somewhat discouraging" presumably because of the absorption of neutrons by some unknown impurity. So, in December 1940 Fermi and Szilard met with Herbert G. MacPherson and V. C. Hamister at National Carbon to discuss the possible existence of impurities in graphite. During this conversation it became clear that minute quantities of boron impurities were the source of the problem. "