	Auergesellschaft had a substantial amount of “waste” uranium from which it had extracted radium. After reading a paper in 1939 by Siegfried Flügge, on the technical use of nuclear energy from uranium, Riehl recognized a business opportunity for the company, and, in July of that year, he went to the "Heereswaffenamt" (HWA, Army Ordnance Office) to discuss the production of uranium. The HWA was interested.