In the beginning was uranium

This article traces the nuclear proliferation which followed Gernot Zippe's invention during the Second World War, of a gas centrifuge to extract Uranium 235 from Uranium. This rare isotope is at the core of nuclear reactors and of the atomic bomb. Despite attempts by the world's nuclear powers to prevent widespread availability of the centrifuge, it is today in use by emergent Third World countries to produce enriched uranium for weapons programmes. The gas centrifuge was developed in a Soviet camp by captured German scientists. Zippe later reconstructed his work from memory in the United States (U.S.) where it was published at the University of Virginia just before the U.S. government could impose a secrecy order. He adapted his work for the West German government to produce enriched uranium fuel for civilian power stations. This technology became the basis for the Urenco industrial consortium. The article concludes with speculation about the nuclear weapons programme in Iraq following the Gulf War, where their impressive arsenal of weapons equipment came from and how close Iraq is to producing its own bomb. (UK)