Nuclear NM Summer Book Club

Nuclear NM Summer Book Club: "Nuclear in New Mexico," exploring the impact of nuclear technology on our state.

Summer of 2026:
ANS Trinity Section is running a Summer Book Club again this year! Please join us in reading this unique book.
Selection:
The Uranium Club: Unearthing the Lost Relics of the Nazi Nuclear Program, by Miriam E. Hiebert.
Summary:
Tim Koeth peered into the crumpled brown paper lunch bag; inside was a surprisingly heavy black metal cube. He recognized the mysterious object instantlyâhe had one just like it sitting on his desk at home. It was uranium metal, taken from the nuclear reactor that Nazi scientists had triedâand failedâto build at the end of World War II. This unexpected gift, wrapped in a piece of paper inscribed with a few cryptic but crucial lines, would launch Koeth, a nuclear physicist and professor, and his colleague Miriam Hiebert, a cultural heritage scientist, on an odyssey to trace the tale of these cubesâtwo of the original 664 on which the Third Reich had pinned their nuclear ambitions.

Part treasure hunt, part historical narrative, The Uranium Club winds its way through the back doors of World War II and Manhattan Project histories to recount the contributions of the men and women at the forefront of the race for nuclear power. From Werner Heisenberg and Germany's nuclear program to the Curies, the first family of nuclear physics, to the Allied Alsos Mission's infiltration of Germany to capture Nazi science to the renegade geologists of Murray Hill scouring the globe for uranium, the cubes are lodestars that illuminate a little-known -- and hugely consequential -- chapter of history.
Get the book:
Available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, GoodReads, AudioBooks, and your local libraries.
A 2026 end-of-summer book discussion will be scheduled in September.
Contact the PI&O chair, Carl Willis or 505-412-3277, for more information.