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Canada in Uranium Eldorado: Canada's National Uranium

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Canada in Uranium Eldorado: Canada's National Uranium -- Canada in Uranium Eldorado: Canada's National Uranium Company - http://www.ccnr.or g/uranium_in_bombs.html from Chapter 3: From Radium to Uranium - There were three possible sources of uranium.... One was now in German hands [Czechoslovakia], and the other two were the Belgian Congo and 'Arctic Ca nada'. [ pp. 84-86 ] Eldorado: Canada's National Uranium Company - http://www.ccnr.or g/uranium_in_bombs.html from Chapter 3: From Radium to Uranium - In May 1941, [ Eldorado ] sold Lyman Briggs [the Chairman of Roosevelt 's Uranium Committee] six or eight tons of uranium oxide.... - It is impossible to know what the company or its president made of thi s, but it is reasonable to suppose that they knew it had to do with the military applications of uranium. - Early in March 1942, [Eldorado received] an order for 60 tons of urani um oxide, approved by [ Vannevar Bush, ] the head of the US atomic project.... - The 60-ton order from the Americans was enough to re-open the mine.... In other, older days the news would have been trumpeted from the rooftops. In M arch 1942 it was a secret. Canada's Nuclear Story Chapter 4: Canada Is Drawn In, p. 41 - In 1940 events were brewing which made it inevitable that Canada's hel p would be needed as a supplier of materials. The uranium deposits on the shores of Great Bear Lake were among the richest in the world. At Port Hope, Ontario, was located the only uranium refinery in operation in North America. - There was, as it happened, a substantial stockpile of uranium oxide at Port Hope. This had not been accumulated in shrewd anticipation of the nuclear age; it was merely a by-product of a radium refinery.... At all events, uranium oxide in quantity was available for refining and use in any wartime application that might materialize.... [Chapter 4: Canada Is Drawn In, p. 41] -- Canada in the treaty Canada's Nuclear Story - http://www.ccnr.org/uranium_in_bombs.ht ml - While the British and the Americans were still at loggerheads over exc hange of nuclear information, there was a display of impatience which erupted in Ottawa and affected all three parties.... - It concerned the destination of the supplies of uranium ore and refine d oxide coming from Canadian sources. The aggressive and relentless drive of Gen eral Groves and his American colleagues had resulted in a series of secret priva te contracts being reached between Eldorado ... and the U.S. Army. For a time th e Canadian government was thrust into the indefensible and embarrassing position of not even being able to find out just what deals Gilbert LaBine and his assoc iates had made with the Americans for Canadian ore and oxide. - The Canadian government held all the cards of course, in the event of a showdown. As an autonomous power, it could step in at any time, expropriate th e properties of Eldorado ... and take over complete control of its uranium contr acts with the United States. This, however, was a step which the Canadian govern ment would be reluctant to take.... Canada's Role in the Atomic Bomb Programs of the United States, Britain, France and India - http://www.ccnr.org/chronology.html August 1943 - The Quebec Agreement is signed by Roosevelt and Churchill at Quebec Ci ty on August 19. Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Europe through Norma ndy, is finalized at the same meeting. - The Quebec Agreement stipulates that Britain and the USA must share re sources ''to bring the Tube Alloys [i.e. the Atomic Bomb] project to fruition at the earliest moment.'' The leaders agree that - ''we will never use this agency against each other,'' - ''we will not use it against third parties without each other' s consent,'' and - ''we will not either of us communicate any information about T ube Alloys to third parties except by mutual consent.'' Canada's Nuclear Story - http://www.ccnr.org/uranium_in_bombs.ht ml - On August 10, Mackenzie King arrived in Quebec City for the Quebec Con ference. J. W. Pickersgill reports the incident and quotes extensively from the Prime Minister's diary: - "... Churchill discussed the atomic project, which had the code name " Tube Alloys", with Mackenzie King and secured his agreement to the suggestion Ch urchill planned to propose to President Roosevelt, that C. D. Howe [Canadian Min ister of Munitions and Supply] be made a member of a combined policy committee o f the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada." Joint action to set up such a committee was taken on August 17. The Articles of Agreement on Tube Alloys [A-Bombs] were signed by Roosevelt and Churchill on Aug ust 19.... -- Canada in the research Eldorado: Canada's National Uranium Company From the Interlude, "War Into Cold War", p. 157 - As minister responsible for Canada's part of the allied atomic project , Howe and his lieutenant, C. J. Mackenzie, had drafted a statement... in which the minister said that - "it is a distinct pleasure for me to announce that Canadian scientists have played an intimate part, and have been associated in an effective way with this great scientific development." Canada's Historical Role in Developing Nuclear Weapons http://nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/readingroom/factsheets/Canadas-contributi on-to-nuclear-weapons-development.cfm - After negotiations between the United Kingdom and Canada, agreement wa s reached. C.D. Howe, Minister of Canadaís wartime Department of Munitions and Sup ply, famously gave the go ahead for the Montreal Laboratory (forerunner of the C halk River Laboratories) with the simple words ìOkay, letís go.î The laboratory would become associated with the U.S. Manhattan Project, which would build a nuclear b omb. Canada's Historical Role in Developing Nuclear Weapons http://nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/readingroom/factsheets/Canadas-contributi on-to-nuclear-weapons-development.cfm - Chalk River Laboratories, February 1954 Located about 200 km north of Ottawa, Ontario, Chalk River Laboratories buildings contained the ZEEP, NRX and NRU reactors (under construction). Originally part of an effort to produce pluto nium for nuclear weapons, the ZEEP reactor was designed by a team of Canadian, B ritish and French scientists and engineers during the Second World War. http://www.ccnr.org/chronology.html - (Summer 1940)Using uranium metal supplied by McGill University, a high ly corrosive compound called ''uranium hexafluoride'' is produced, which turns i nto a gas when heated. As this gas diffuses through a very fine membrane, the li ghter atoms (uranium-235) pass through somewhat more easily than the heavier one s (uranium-238). - In Ottawa, the delegation meets George Laurence, then on staff at the Canadian National Research Council, who secretly built his own slow neutron exp eriment in a room on Sussex Drive, using graphite as a moderator. (Laurence had anticipated Fermi's work by several months.) - Back in Britain, the British delegation reports that the slow neutron researches being conducted in Cambridge (by the Paris Group), Columbia (by Fermi ) and Canada (by Laurence), are probably irrelevant to the war effort. But since nuclear boilers could have some post-war value, they arrange that a small finan cial donation be sent to support the Canadian fission experiments. Also, George Laurence becomes a party to some of the secret exchanges of sensitive nuclear in formation between the British and the Americans. - November 1940: http://www.ccnr.org/chronology.html May 1942: - Sensing the Americans' edginess, the British decide to back off. Earli er, the M.A.U.D. Committee had suggested sending the heavy water team to Canada. It now seems an excellent compromise: the fission scientists will be close to C hicago, yet still in the British Commonwealth, and still safe from German bombs. - Autumn 1942: The British will pay the salaries of the people they are sending over. The Canadians will pay for everything else. - Although the NRC is Ottawa-based, it is decided to house the nuclear r esearch team in Montreal, where lab space and accommodations are easier to obtai n. A portion of the Medical Wing of the Université de Montreal, on the slopes of M ount Royal, is leased and refurbished for this purpose. - The heavy water team starts arriving in late November and early Decemb er, months before the labs are ready. Temporary space is provided in an old mans ion on Simpson street in downtown Montreal. Spring 1943: - Important work is done at the Montreal Lab. Neutron measurements invol ving heavy water and graphite (obtained from Ontario) are carried out. The engin eers and physicists develop a number of design concepts for a nuclear boiler uti lizing a heavy water moderator. - From this sample, the Montreal radiochemists separate out three microg rams of plutonium. Further experiments are then done to evaluate different metho ds of separating plutonium from uranium. April 1944: - After much delay, finally yielding to sustained arguments by James Cha dwick, the Combined Policy Committee decides on April 13, in Washington DC, that a large-scale pilot plant -- a nuclear reactor -- will be built in Canada, usin g heavy water as a moderator. The US will provide the necessary materials. - However, no information about the chemical properties or even the biom edical hazards of fission products or plutonium is to be transmitted. The Montre al team will have to figure it all out for themselves. The Americans agree, howe ver, to donate a few irradiated fuel rods to help them get started. July 1944: - The Americans deliver to Montreal a few spent fuel rods of natural ura nium (containing plutonium-239) and of thorium (containing uranium-233). - The Montreal team knows little about the US method for separating plut onium, except that it is based on precipitation.
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