Ronald Richter

Ronald Richter (1909-1991) was an Austrian, later Argentinian, scientist who became famous in connection with the Huemul Project. This was intended to generate energy from nuclear fusion in the 1950s in Argentina, during the regime of Juan Perón.

This article is a biography of Ronald Richter. For details about his ideas and his work related to nuclear fusion see the article Huemul Project. For the genesis and current status of the Argentine CNEA, see the article Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica.

Nationality

Of German origin, Richter was born in Falkenau an der Eger during the Austrian rule of the Czech Sudetenland (now Czech Republic). The locality was known until 1948, in Czech, as Falknov nad Ohří; renamed since then as Sokolov [1].

Different sources attribute to Richter either Austrian or German nationality. Eventually he was naturalized Argentine. This last nationality was acquired when President Juan Perón overrode Argentine law (Gambini, 1999, v.1, p.397).

Studies

Richter attended the German University of Prague. Different sources provide variant narratives about his studies as a doctoral candidate.

According to Gambini (1999, v.1, p.396), Richter was awarded a doctorate in natural sciences in 1955. [However, another source claims that he was not awarded a doctoral degree because he had misinterpreted his research results. He had concluded that he had discovered delta rays being emitted by the earth, but in fact he had been detecting X-rays scattered by the ground .

According to his recollection, Mayo (2004) had personally heard Richard Gans say:

Richter proposed a thesis, at the German University of Prague, to detect "delta rays" emitted from Earth. Professor Heinrich Rausch von Traubenberg did not agree with the project. The "young genius" went to work somewhere else and graduated in a different field.

Kurt Sitte's recollections of Richter's research under Prof. Furth differed. He recalls (Mariscotti, 1985, p.277-8):

...when I was Prof. Furth's assistent in the Department of Experimental Physics [of Prague University], [Richter] came to interest us in a fantastic project. He had read (not in a scientific journal, of course) about the discovery of a misterious radiation, the "earth rays", that radiated from the interior of the Earth and caused a huge type of fabulous effects. These were what he wanted to research. He was very excited with the idea, and it was very difficult ot convince him (if we really did) that the "evidence" cited was spurious.

His thesis was not published (Mariscotti, 1985, p.208, quoting Alemann, 1955)

Work

Europe

During work he did in Germany in the period 1939-1943 he met Kurt Tank, an aeronautical engineer who later emigrated to Argentina, hired by Perón's government under the cover name of Pedro Matthies. [2] Richter's only known jobs of scientific or technological character, between the end of WWII and his arrival in Argentina, were a six-month stint working on explosives and a few commercial contracts (Roederer, 2003; Mariscotti, 1985).

Argentina

Recommended to Perón by Kurt Tank, Richter moved to Argentina and was received, according to Gambini (1999, v.1, p.396), by the German industrialist August Siebrecht, ex-nazi spy. He took Richter to Cordoba, where Kurt Tank was developing aircraft. Perón had hired Kurt Tank to design and produce airplanes and Tank was interested in Richter's proposal of using nuclear energy to propel the aircraft. When a short time later Richter was introduced to Perón he proposed him the program that eventually became known as the Huemul Project: production of energy by means of controlled nuclear fusion reactions. A complete description is given in the article Huemul Project. Richter continued to address Tank as Prof. Dr. Pedro Matthies in his correspondence about the Huemul Project .

After the termination of the Huemul Project in 1952, Richter appears to have spent periods of time abroad. Eventually he returned to Argentina where he died in 1991. A terse announcement of Richter's death appeared in an obituary published by Microsemanario (1991).

Obituary

A terse announcement of Richter's death appeared in Microsemanario (1991).

References

To facilitate library access to the references, both code numbers, ISBN and LC, are given when available.

• Alemann, Peter (1955). Esto Es, last week of October 1955.

• Confalonieri, Orestes D. (1956). Peron contra Peron, Editorial Antygua, Buenos Aires.

• Dujovne Ortiz, Alicia 1996). Eva Perón. 1st ed.(tr. Fields, Shawn)( New York: St. Martin's Press, 325 p. ISBN 0312145993 -- F2849.P37 D8413 1996

• Eloy Martínez, Tomas (1996). Las Memorias del General. Editorial Planeta, Buenos Aires. ISBN 9507426973. See translated excerpt, below.

• Gambini, Hugo (1999). Historia del Peronismo, Editorial Planeta Buenos Aires, 2 vols. ISBN 950490226X. F2849.G325 1999. See translated excerpt, below.

• Luzuriaga, Javier (2005). Even in Translation, Richter's 'Science' Unimpressive (January 2005). Letter by Luzuriaga, no reply.

• Mariscotti, Mario J. (1985). El secreto atómico de Huemul.. Editorial Planeta, Buenos Aires. ISBN 9503701090. QC773.3.A7 M37 1985.

• Mayo, Santos (2004). More on the Value of Ronald Richter's Work. (March 2004). Letter by Mayo followed by Winterberg's reply.

• Microsemanario (1991). Microsemanario 2:43, 26 Nov - 2 Dic 1991. Secretaría de Extensión Universitaria de la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales - UBA.

• Roederer, Juan G. (2003). Early Cosmic-Ray Research in Argentina (January 2003). Article by Roederer containing a section titled "The Argentine scientist Richter".

• Winterberg, Friedwardt (2004). Ronald Richter, Genius or Nut? (August 2003). Letter by Winterberg followed by Roederer's reply.