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 [^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 2.