 As a group leader at the Metallurgical Laboratory , Creutz conducted studies of uranium and how it could be <unk> into rods . His group looked into the process of corrosion in metals in contact with fast @-@ flowing liquids , the processes for <unk> aluminium and <unk> uranium with it . It also investigated the forging of beryllium , and the preparation of thorium . Frederick Seitz and Alvin Weinberg later <unk> that the activities of Creutz and his group may have reduced the time taken to produce plutonium by up to two years . 
