Production of Large Quantities of Heavy Water

L. Tronstad

Editor’s Note

Nature had recently reported on the establishment of a British plant for the manufacture of heavy water. Here Leif Tronstad of the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry in Norway tells of a similar project already undertaken by the Norwegians. Large quantities of heavy water were being produced from a facility run by Norsk Hydro near Rjukan in the Telemark region. In principle, this facility could produce up to 10 litres of heavy water in a single day, if this came to be demanded by increasing research activity in physics, chemistry and biology. The plant was sabotaged by the Norwegian resistance during the Second World War to prevent heavy water being used to develop a German atomic bomb.ft　　中文

FROM the discussion recently held in the Royal Society1, and from several communications on heavy hydrogen published in Nature, it is obvious that larger quantities of heavy water are at present much needed for investigations in several branches of physics, chemistry and biology. To meet this demand, Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd., is to undertake commercial production at Billingham2. It may also be of interest to report in this connexion, that various concentrates of the new water are now produced on a large scale in Norway by Norsk Hydro-Elektrisk Kvaelstofaktieselskab, Oslo. Large quantities of “1:300-water” can be obtained from the above company, and richer concentrates will be available at a later date.ft　　中文

This company at its works in Rjukan has one of the largest electrolytic hydrogen plants of the world, with a capacity of about 20,000 m.3 per hour. Assuming the efficiency of separation by electrolysis so low as 10 percent3, a quantity of about 10 litres of “pure” heavy water a day can be produced if the consumption requires.ft　　中文

In full agreement with other investigators, it has been found that the efficiency is only slightly affected by the conditions of the electrolysis1,4. However, certain difficulties arose using sulphuric acid with lead electrodes, due to the formation of porous lead on the cathodes and to the formation of fog. The efficiency of separation in both acid and alkaline solution agree fairly well with that found, for example, by Harteck5. Further details of the experimental results are to be published shortly in the Zeitschrift für Elektrochemie.ft　　中文

(133, 872; 1934)

Leif Tronstad: Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Norwegian Technical High School, Trondhjem, Norway, May, 4.

References:

  1. Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 144, 1; 1934.

  2. Nature, 133, 604, April 21, 1934.

  3. Taylor, Eyring and Frost, J. Chem. Phys., 1, 823; (1933).

  4. Compare, for example, Topley and Eyring, Nature, 133, 292, Feb. 24, 1934. Bell and Wolfenden, ibid., p.25.

  5. Harteck, Proc. Roy. Soc., loc. cit. and Proc. Phys. Soc., 40, 277; 1934.