Norwegian heavy water sabotage
The Norwegian heavy water sabotage was a series of Allied-led efforts to halt German heavy water production via hydroelectric plants in Nazi Germany-occupied Norway during World War II, involving both Norwegian commandos and Allied bombing raids. During the war, the Allies sought to inhibit the German development of nuclear weapons with the removal of heavy water and the destruction of heavy-water production plants. The Norwegian heavy water sabotage was aimed at the 60 MW Vemork power station at the Rjukan waterfall in Telemark.
Vemork hydroelectric power plant, circa 1947
Experimental apparatus with which chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann discovered the nuclear fission of uranium in 1938
Heavy water made by Norsk Hydro
Reconstruction of the Operation Gunnerside team planting explosives to destroy the cascade of electrolysis chambers
Heavy water is a form of water whose hydrogen atoms are all deuterium rather than the common hydrogen-1 isotope that makes up most of the hydrogen in normal water. The presence of the heavier isotope gives the water different nuclear properties, and the increase in mass gives it slightly different physical and chemical properties when compared to normal water.
"Heavy water" made by Norsk Hydro