The Yugoslav ‘Operation Paperclip’: German Geologists in the Yugoslav Nuclear Program in the Late 1940s and Early 1950s

Miljković, Marko (2022) The Yugoslav ‘Operation Paperclip’: German Geologists in the Yugoslav Nuclear Program in the Late 1940s and Early 1950s. Annual of Social History, 28 (3). pp. 7-32. ISSN 0354-5318

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Abstract

This paper traces the early period of the Yugoslav nuclear program, in which the biggest problem was finding uranium. With only a handful of trained geologists and prospectors, the solution was found in the employment of German experts. This was a global trend at the time, and as this paper shows, was not reserved for great powers. Relying on the expertise of German scientists, Yugoslavia managed to raise the first post-war generation of geologists, who eventually found uranium and started its exploitation on several locations in the country, most notably in Kalna (Serbia) and Žirovski vrh (Slovenia).

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