Editing Gernot Zippe (section)

==Personal interests and reputation ==
While working as consultant in the Urenco Group in Amsterdam, he was able to improve the efficiency of the gas centrifuge. He enjoyed flying and flew planes until he was 80 years old.<ref name="slender"/> Zippe passed away in [[Bad Tölz]], [[Bavaria]], Germany, on 7 May 2008, aged 90.<ref name="Unintended Consequences">{{cite web |title=Unintended Consequences |url=https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/9789814596589_0010 |website=A Chorus of Bells and Other Scientific Inquiries |publisher=WORLD SCIENTIFIC |access-date=24 December 2024 |pages=159–166 |doi=10.1142/9789814596589_0010 |date=4 February 2014}}</ref>

From 2006–08, Zippe was a subject of interests in European political media which noted that his invention made it cheaper to produce fuel for [[nuclear reactor]]s but also to build [[nuclear weapon]]s, which increased the risk of [[nuclear proliferation]].<ref name="slender"/> When asked if he has any regrets, he responded, "With a kitchen knife you can peel a potato or kill your neighbor, it's up to governments to use the centrifuge for the benefit of mankind."<ref name="slender">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20040323tuesday.html| title=Slender and Elegant, It Fuels the Bomb| accessdate=2016-05-23| work= [[New York Times]]| date=2004-03-23}}</ref>

Although, the United States and the European media credited Gernot Zippe of being the innovator of the machine, the Russian sources, however, disputed the account of Soviet centrifuge development given by Gernot Zippe.<ref name="Bukharin, 2004">Oleg Bukharin, Oleg. [http://www.partnershipforglobalsecurity-archive.org/Documents/bukharinrussianenrichmentcomplexjan2004.pdf Russia’s Gaseous Centrifuge Technology and Uranium Enrichment Complex] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111170013/http://www.partnershipforglobalsecurity-archive.org/Documents/bukharinrussianenrichmentcomplexjan2004.pdf |date=January 11, 2014 }} 2004.</ref> The Russians credited [[Max Steenbeck]], as the German scientist in charge of the German part of the Soviet centrifuge effort, [[Isaac Kikoin]] and Evgeni Kamenev with originating different valuable aspects of the design.<ref name="Bukharin, 2004"/>

The Russian accounts stated that Zippe was engaged in building prototypes for the project for two years from 1953 but, since the centrifuge project was with the [[Classified information in Russia|"Top Secret"]] designation, the Russians did not challenge any of Zippe's claims at that time.<ref name="Bukharin, 2004"/>