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| Heavy Water and the Wartime Race for Nuclear Energy | Buy a book...
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| Author(s): | P. F. Dahl |
| Publisher: | Institute of Physics |
| ISBN: | 0 7503 0633 5 |
| Format: | hardback |
| 399pp | |
| Price: | £35.00 |
| Review Date: | 23 May 2000 |
| Review: | This book deals with the history of heavy water, with stress on its role in WW II. It describes the discovery and early uses of heavy water, its concentration and large-scale production by the Norwegian firm Norsk Hydro (the author has access to their archives and throws light on the 'Norwegian connection'), especially under German control in occupied Norway. The French/German race for the Norwegian heavy water stocks in 1940 and its importance for the subsequent German uranium project which staked everything on heavy water in producing a nuclear chain reaction is described. The allied sabotage and bombing operations against the Norsk Hydro facilities and the allies attempted to track down German atomic scientists and their laboratories in the final days of the war are all chronicled. The role that heavy water played in the post-war years in the development of nuclear physics and chemistry is discussed. |