Heavy Water and the Wartime Race for Nuclear Energy - 1st Edition Hardcover by Per F. Dahl (1999) | WWII History Book, Atomic Research & Science Collectibles

This book deals with the history of heavy water, with stress on its role in World War II. It covers the discovery and early uses of heavy water; its methods of concentration and large-scale production by the Norwegian firm of Norsk Hydro, especially under German control in occupied Norway; the French-German race for the meagre Norwegian heavy-water stocks at the outbreak of war in 1940; its importance for the subsequent German uranium project, which alone staked everything on heavy water in its effort to produce a nuclear chain reaction; likewise its lesser role in the Allied atomic effort, especially in the United States and Canada. The chronicle is enlivened with accounts of Allied sabotage and bombing operations against the Norsk Hydro facilities, and of the Allied mission to track down German atomic scientists and their laboratories in the final days of the war.