Gernot Zippe

Gernot Zippe
Born	November 1917 Varnsdorf, Austria-Hungary
Died	7 May 2008 Vienna, Austria
Residence	Vienna, Austria
Citizenship	Austria
Nationality	Austria
Fields	Engineering
Institutions	German Luftwaffe Germany Soviet atomic bomb project (Soviet Union) University of Virginia (United States)
Alma mater	University of Vienna (Austria)
Known for	Zippe-type centrifuge

Dr. Gernot Zippe (November 1917 – 7 May 2008) was a mechanical engineer responsible for leading the team which developed the Zippe-type centrifuge, a machine for the collection of Uranium-235.

Early Life and World War II

Zippe was born in Varnsdorf, Austria-Hungary (nowadays Czech Republic). He studied physics at the University of Vienna in the '30s and served in the German Luftwaffe as a flight instructor and a researcher on radar and airplane propellers. In 1945, the Soviets took him, as with other technically skilled prisoners, to a special camp where he led a team that worked on centrifuge research for the Soviet Union.^[1] He was allowed to leave in 1956, and returned to Vienna.

When Zippe visited a 1957 conference on centrifuge research in Amsterdam, he realized the rest of the world was far behind what his team had been able to achieve. His notes had been confiscated when he left the Soviet Union, but working from memory, he was able to recreate the centrifuge at the University of Virginia in the United States.^{[citation needed]}

United States offer

The United States government tried to recruit him for secret nuclear research, going so far as to ask him to change his citizenship, but he refused and returned to Europe.^{[citation needed]}

Personal interests

Working in industry in the 1960s, he was able to improve the efficiency of the centrifuge. He enjoyed flying and flew planes until he was 80 years old.^{[citation needed]}

The Legacy

His invention made it cheaper to build nuclear reactors, and nuclear weapons, which increased the risk of nuclear proliferation. When asked if he has any regrets, he responds, "With a kitchen knife you can peel a potato or kill your neighbor, it's up to governments to use the centrifuge for the benefit of mankind."^{[citation needed]}

It was an American Engineer, John P Feltman,whose research in composite materials led to his invention of a composite high speed centrifuge rotor (1966),http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3248046.pdf, Feltman's theories were those upon which the Zippe rotor was developed. Feltman sold this patent to Vernitron Corp.in 1971 to help his friend William Piemonte, who financed Feltman's patent application. Feltman's patent was predicated on the concept that it was Strength/weight ratios that would make it possible to produce composite material rotors that would allow centrifuge rotors to be rotated at much higher RPM.

Involvement in U.S. Nuclear Program and Nuclear Profileration

The above account states that Zippe recreated the Centrifuge at the University of Virginia. However, prior to that the Zippe had contacted the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's (USAEC) office in Germantown Md. (Now "Gaithersburg" and now the Dept of Energy.) and advised the USAEC of his knowledge of his centrifuge. This information was highly classfied as "weapons information". However, the AEC officials were unaware that Dr. Zippe was on a worldwide tour—advising others of his development.

References

1. ^ "The problem of Uranium Isotope Separation by Means of Ultracentrifuge in the USSR". Central Intelligence Agency. 1957-10-08. http://www.fas.org/irp/cia/product/zippe.pdf. Retrieved 2010-04-04. 

External links

• The Zippe Type – The Poor Man's Bomb, BBC Radio 4, 19 May 2004
• Tracking the technology, Nuclear Engineering International, 31 August 2004
• Slender and Elegant, It Fuels the Bomb, New York Times, March 23, 2004
• Gernot Zippe

Persondata
Name	Zippe, Gernot
Alternative names
Short description	Austrian nuclear physicist
Date of birth	1917
Place of birth	Switzerland
Date of death	7 May 2008
Place of death	Vienna, Austria