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Private Organization | The Weizmann Institute of Science is Israel's preeminent research institution, whose chemistry and isotope research divisions, directed by Ernst David Bergmann after 1948, provided a scientific foundation for Israel's nuclear weapons program. | 1934 | Rehovot, Israel |
The Weizmann Institute of Science is a preeminent research facility in Israel. After Israel's successful War of Independence in 1948, Ernst David Bergmann became the director of its chemistry division. In 1949, a department of isotope research was established at the Institute, and young Israeli scientists were sent abroad to study nuclear energy and chemistry. A joint research program was also initiated with the nascent French Atomic Energy Commission.1
By 1953, researchers at Weizmann had pioneered a new process for creating heavy water and a more efficient means of extracting uranium from phosphate fields. These concepts were later sold to the French, leading to a formal agreement for cooperation in nuclear research between the two nations.1
Footnotes
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Hersh, Seymour M. The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy. Random House, 1991. Chapter 2. ↩︎