Heavy Water

We don't mean the stuff that hasn't stopped falling out of the sky continuously for the last 12 hours but the hydro electric plant at Vemork where the Germans were producing it during the war. The weather was appropriate for our visit and it was fascinating to be where those Norwegian heroes sabotaged Hitler's plan to develop the atom bomb. If you are interested just 'Google' any of the following: heavy water, Vemork, Rjukan, Heroes of Telemark.

After the visit we travelled through the nearby town of Rjukan, it is set deep in the very narrow valley so hence doesn't get much sunlight. To counter this most of the houses are lightly coloured with many having aluminium roofs to reflect what little sunlight they get. The hydroelectric town was founded in 1907, the administrators homes occupied the highest slopes, below them the office workers and in the dark depths of the valley dwelt the labourers. However in 1928 the company built a cable car to provide employees with access to the sun!

In the museum a copy of a letter warning about the possibility of creating atomic weapons. Note who it is from and to!