Agreed. I like stuff like that, that gesture of "I don't want this and have no need for it, so I will give it to someone who I know will value it much more than I will"
@@VideoDotGoogleDotCom that is quite understandable, we have a lot of tourists tenting, I imagine because of the cost (and they like to obviously ( So that's a possibility, though, comes with its own challenges
A fascinating follow-up story to this is that around the same time, the entire Norwegian stock of heavy water was moved in secret to Canada (not directly, and it's journey is a fascinating story all to it's own) to keep it away from the Germans, and this in turn sparked the creation of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, and the Candu heavy water moderated nuclear reactor design.
the short version of the story : smuggled out of Norway, to France, days before Germany invaded, smuggled out of Paris days before the Germans got there, Smuggled out of France to UK when it became clear that France was going to have to give it to the Germans, and then sent to Canada. Each part is a story by itself
Professor can perform Infrared Spectroscopy of this D2O vial - without breaking it - and you can show it to us how it's differ from normal H2O Spectroscopy... just an Idea for next video :-)
Won't work, at least not in the normal sense. I thought about this too. The ampoule is made of normal glass and will be totally opaque to far IR light, so an FTIR scan is not possible. You MAY be able to do a near IR spectrum on it and look for the slight shift in the 3rd overtone of the OH stretching mode (the effect that makes normal water blue and D2O colorless), but the absorbance there is tiny and you need a huge path length to see it - gonna be very difficult with that small sample. The only options are probably going to be some type of specialized NMR setup or Raman scattering if you want to know for sure without breaking it open.
@@Muonium1 thank you for explanation. That's what I thought after posting the comment - can't comment about possibility of Raman or NMR as not having enough experience on that. I don't think anybody will be in favor of breaking a vial and use tiny amount for Spectroscopy - but it would be very informative for general users if Bredy makes any video on Spectroscopy using other samples
I will never forget the episode of Hogan's Heroes when Stalag 13 was used as a storage facility for heavy water being transported through the country. They convinced Colonel Klink that he could regrow his hair by drinking the heavy water 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
The lake is called Tinnsjøren (also called Tinnsjå) and is NOT a fjord but a freshwater lake with anavegare depth of 190 metres (max 400 m). 14 Norwegians and 4 Germans were killed in the sinking of the D/F Hydro; even compared to the casualties of WWII in Norway alone this is a very small number There ARE lakes in Norway where fjord forms part of the name, but they are all fresh water. The ‘proper’ fjords are all inlets of the sea with salty water on the coast of Norway. Vemork/Rjukan where the factory lies, is quite a distance from the coast. Fun fact, owing to the mountains surrounding Rjukan, they got less sunshine than parts of the country lying within the Arctic circle, so they've built huge mirrors to reflect the sunlight so that they can see the sun before May.
Wierdly enough, I recently read about the sun mirrors. They also have them at a village in Italy which is in a similar situation. Strange how random things I read on the internet sync up sometimes! The sunlight really, really helps people to feel better, it even helps with depression. I live in Scotland which is very gloomy indeed for half the year, so I built myself some super intense cold white LED panels for my desk, it really helps. Humans need bright light, it's a strange thing indeed.
@@goose300183 You might look into getting an actual sun lamp; LEDs provide very specific wavelengths and don't properly mimic sunlight, so you might get better effect from a purpose-built item. Either way, I'm glad what you've made is helping you.
@MichaelKingsfordGray Think of all the time you spend posting childish insults in TH-cam comments and what you could achieve if you had that time back...
The most heart wrenching moment (don't quote me on it though, maybe not true) was relatives forgiving the commandoes for sinking the ferry full of people
I used to live not too far from The heavy water plants at Vemork. It's really beautiful there, and is definitely worth a visit if you're interested in Chemistry or Wartime history. And nature, of course.
I love this brave story and I’ve grown up knowing it. I live close to the factory where the operation took place. Regarding the second operation of attacking the ship - these tanks of D2O were recovered many years later, and some tanks were completely intact, they had just sunk. As a commodity, Norsk Hydro took this heavy water and made ampules much like the one shown in this video and handed them out to the public if one applied for one. I did, and have a vial of this heavy water in my possession, and it’s a great piece of history!
Professor Sir Martyn has something in common with another great science communicator, Sir David Attenborough. Both of them are a fairly advanced age but both speak with genuine excitement and enthusiasm for their subjects. It's inspiring to see.
It’s Unbelievable the things you have accumulated!!! From the graphite reactor fragments taken from the original Chicago pile, to the heavy water sample in this video… As someone who collects radioactive elements, sources, and artifacts pertaining to the development and history of nuclear science … This is just lovely and I love seeing these beautiful things you have collected. I live about 10 minutes outside of Oak Ridge Tennessee… Born and raised here… And I’ve been interested in this stuff and started my collection when I was about 18
Dear Professor, I remember very well during a lesson of Inorganic Chemistry 2 at Univ. Ca' Foscari of Venice (Italy), when Prof. Lucio Cattalini mentioned the same movie and the same story, while he was teaching deuterium properties and compounds. A little nostalgia returns.
Nice episode. My great grandfather was on that ferry when it exploded. He managed to swim ashore, but his friend drowned. The ferry is still at the bottom of "Tinn sea" at 460 meters, and some years ago they even managed to salvage one of the barrels with heavy water. You can still see the "sister ferry" Ammonia at the lake there (they had two ferries at the time). The ferry is now a museum, and well worth a visit.
@@jasonlast7091 Um... But the meaning of "Norsk" is actually relevant to the video. And Prof. Poliakoff explains the other, obvious, half of the company's name in the video.
@@beeble2003 Um… but the meaning of my comment is actually relevant to @Ze Rubenator’s comment and not the video, evidenced by the fact that it was a reply to the comment and not the video.
What an awesome gift, Professor! And I also wanted to add that later on, after the sabotage of the heavy water plant, the Norwegian Resistance fighters also blew up and sank a ferry that transported the stock of already produced heavy water. The ferry is still at the bottom of Tinn lake, and several years ago a team of scientists and historians have retrieved one of the sealed heavy water barrels and tested its content. And, what do you know, it's still well preserved and contains heavy water!
Check out Professor Philip Moriarty's (also on this channel) book "When the Uncertainty Principle Goes to 11: Or how to Explain Quantum Physics with Heavy Metal" Brilliant!
Not far from where I grew up, southern Ontario, is Douglas Point Nuclear Generating Station. As a CANDU, Canadian Deuterium/Uranium reactor, there is the constant need for heavy water. There is a heavy water plant of site that uses Hydrogen Sulfide gas rather than electrolysis to concentrated the heavy water.
My grandfather, was a Commando who took part in a raid on the Telemark heavy water plant. When he died in 1991, the Norwegian government insisted on paying for his tombstone, which has a small inscription that commemorating his part in the raid. From what he told me, his mission was to sabotage an electric power plant or substation Among other things, this involved the improvised cutting through an live 11kV cable with an axe. He did not talk much about his war time activities, but cutting this cable must have made an impression, as it was one of the few events he was prepared to relate.
Hi, I want to reccomend to the professor the norwegian movie that was made. Operation Swallow: The Battle for Heavy Water In it some of the actual commandoes that partook in the raid are playing their own parts, and its made as an reenactment of the raids. The american one is an action movie and not very accurate to the actual raid...
The "American" one is actually British, though starring famous American actors because of the persistent belief that Americans only want to watch other Americans in movies.
I would also recommend Ray Mears' Real Heroes of Telemark, where modern Norwegian Army members follow in the footsteps of the raid, the history is told properly, and they get to meet up with the surviving members of the original raid.
Funny story; one of the commandoes (Knut Haugland) wasn't available for the filming of this movie because he was on the Kon-Tiki expedition at the time of filming.
The UK and the Americans chose graphite as a neutron moderator in their respective "Tube Alloys" and "Manhatten Project". This Germans did not and went for D2O because a measurement error determined the absorption cross section of graphite too high (by a factor of two I believe). I read this in "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Rhodes.
I remember watching that movie when I was young. What a bit of luck that someone's dad worked on the movie that had a sample of heavy water and offered it to you to help teach future generation of people.
OMG! This is my family history. My grandfather worked at the plant at the time of the sabotage. He was in the building when the bomb went off. I have read all of the books. The Norwegian version of the movie (Kampen om tungtvannet 1948) is the best version.
This narrator is the most British person I’ve seen all decade. Sitting in a country garden, Knick knacks on the table, lovely country house behind him. I’m sure I would’ve been invited for tea were I there after filming wrapped. 🇬🇧
Hey I would love to see a video about ozone! The history, why it can exist, why it is more abundant in the upper atmosphere, why it’s such a powerful oxidizer, etc.
Doesn't matter if they leak. 1 in about 4000 water molecules have a deuterium atom in place of a hydrogen, so Tinnsjøen already has way more deuterium than in the tanks anyway. Also, it's not a fjord, it's a lake.
I've always wondered what percentage of a sample is actually D2O rather than DHO? Also, since many processes for concentrating D2O would also concentrate any Tritium present; how much of a sample is T2O, DTO and THO? Being that the half life of Tritium is just 12 years, such an old sample probably wouldn't have much left if, if any. Apparently the presence of concentrated deuterium gives water a slightly sweet taste and is used as a medical tracer. However, since it is less reactive than Hydrogen water and has a higher freezing point, it isn't advisable to consume more than 500ppm by blood volume (aprox. 0.0025ml) in a 48 hour span, as this is the time it takes for the kidneys to filter it out.
Heavy water is routinely used in chemical analysis and the catalog of any large laboratory supply distributor (Fisher Scientific, Sigma-Aldrich, etc) will have it in a variety of purity grades (99.9% is typical, and 99.95% is readily available). Its price is not remarkable comparing to many other laboratory chemicals -- about a dollar for a gram. For all intents and purposes, tritium content in commercial heavy water is zero, because it is obtained from the ordinary water. Only when heavy water is bombarded with neutrons in the nuclear reactor, some small concentration of tritium is produced, and it can be extracted for use in battery-less lights, atomic bombs, etc...
Professor ...youre my spirit animal and I appreciate your love of science. Thank you for sharing your mind with us and your students and colleges, my dear friend Oh and thanks to the heavy water guy!
There's a show about the Deuterium called "Kampen om tungtvannet" in Norwegian, (The Heavy Water War) its on IMDB. Its a mini series that aired on NRK1 (The Norwegian National TV Channel) in 2015. Language is Norwegian, and I dont know if it has English subtitles, but if you can find it. Its really worth the watch. Some parts of the series is in UK so naturally its in English.
Amazingly I knew Syd Pearson in his later life when he was the chief analytical chemist at Thos Wragg & Sons Ltd, a now long defunct company. I was a callow youth of 18 in my gap year and took a summer job as a leb tech.
It actually _is_ the emblem of the Telemark Battalion (TMBN), and while the raid was in Vemork, Telemark, the Battalion has roots stretching all the way back to 1789. So it wasn't named exclusively to honour these raids during the occupation, but I guess they couldn't have picked another name.
The primary purpose of the heavy water is not heat removal, but as a moderator. Natural uranium (with only 0.7% U235) will not function in a reactor unless fast neutrons are slowed down to thermal velocities so that fission of the U235 can take place and criticality can be maintained which will not happen with fast neutrons being captured by the U238 and not fissioning. Fermi's experimental reactor in Chicago used graphite as a moderator, as did the British Magnox and AGR power stations (which used CO2 as coolant). Light water will only work if the uranium is enriched.
I bought a vial of heavy water as a souvenir when I visited Vemork factory in Rjukan Norway. If I'm not mistaken it was about 25 Euros at the time. And as far as I know they still sell them. Not in nice packaging like the professor got. But in a see through plastic box containing the vial.
3:20 Translation of the full company name on the vial's lable: "Norsk Hydro-Elektrisk Kvælstofaktieselskab" = Norwegian Hydro-Electric Nitrogen Ltd. Literally "kvælstof" is "strangle substance/stuff", and is an archaic name for N2 in Norwegian and Danish. Aktie = stock (now spelled aksje) and selskab (selskap) = company, which is nowadays commonly found abbreviated as A/S or AS in Norwegian company names. I believe the nitrogen or fertilizer division is now called Yara while the part still called Norsk Hydro is mainly concerned with (hydro-electric) production of aluminium.
The germans would never get to the stage of developing the weapon before the allies. 1) The scientific minds nessesary had all fled the country or being killed for refusing to help the nazis. 2) The effort put into development of the bomb was pitiful. 3) The americans put a considerable portion of its industrial might towards the task.
At that time, Heisenberg had little knowledge of fast neutron reactions, separating U235, or plutonium. You can read the transcriptions of the German scientists' reactions to the bombing of Hiroshima in the book, "Operation Epsilon - The Farm Hall Transcripts."
If somebody is interessted in more of the story and life of the Norwegian commandos during the war I would recommend "kampen on tungtvannet" (Norwegian title) or "the saboteures" (UK title). 6 part miniseries from 2015, 45 min each episode.
Thank you very much for this video, it gave me an answer to something from my childhood. I vaguely remember watching this movie with my grandad who fought in WWII and I can only picture in my memory that exact part of it with the water dripping that you showed and it's been stuck in my head for years, but I never knew the name of the movie. Now I can watch it now knowing the title and see if it brings back any other memories of my grandad to me.
they didn't fail to recognize it at all, it was a well known possible moderator. they failed to recognize that the exceptionally high neutron absorption cross-section of boron contaminants at the ppm level in their graphite was poisoning the reaction and never obtained boron free graphite.
@@Muonium1 They tested Graphite early and discarded it as an option because of this. They thought the graphite itself was causing the behavior, not contamination.
Yeah there a videos online of the graphite cubes that hung around the reactor built by the Germans. I’m terms of their competency in building a reactor, they were only a few years behind the allies.
I was watching several years ago a cooking show with a well known Scandanavian chef Andreas Viestad from Norway or Sweden who was using heavy water outdoors perhaps I think(don't recall) to heat the item he was preparing or for some other reason. In any case he warned everyone in the t.v. audience not to drink this. It is poisonous and deadly!!!
@@Blacktronics: Either that or eating huge amounts of salt was a way of committing suicide in China by probably lower classes thousands of years ago and probably elsewhere in the world.
The German atom bomb program was scrapped just because of the lack of heavy water, so however fastly the factory was rebuilt, the attack was enough to stop the Germans from getting an atom bomb.
They had enough to make it, it just that Heisenberg miscalculated so badly they thought they needed tons upon tons of fissile material to make a nuclear bomb. Hence why they didn't focus so much on it and rather focused on getting heavy water. One of the better stabilizing agents known at the start of the war.
The poor guy who owned the sample before thought it was a "bottle of potentially poisonous liquid", mate you could snap that ampoule open and down it and be perfectly fine. I doubt any of us non-billionaires could afford even remotely enough to drink to experience any negative effects. Glad it ended up with the professor though. Much better than the trash!
I have read that because civilians might be killed authorisation for sinking the ferry went right to the king of Norway (who was in exile in Britain), and also that after the war divers recovered one or more of the sunk tanks and verified that they did indeed contain heavy water.
The viking ship is the logo of Norsk Hydro. The company still exists, but the logo has since been stylized to almost unrecognisability, as is the trend nowadays it seems. Which imo is unfortunate; the older logo looks a lot classier to me, rather than the pseudo-stylish new one... it just smacks of "2010's startup company" while company actually has a long history, which the old style logo would have been indicative of. Their fertilizer division was separated out into a new company called Yara, and it too has a viking ship as a logo and at least there the ship is still recognisable as a ship.
There's also a Norwegian miniseries called the Heavy Water Wars (or the Saboteurs depending where in the English speaking world you are) that was produced a few years ago. It's really well down and I highly recommend it!
I was just thinking about the series The Heavy Water War. I saw that a few years back, there was a lot of neat info. I remember it being like a half documentary/half drama kind of thing.
Without the manufacturing power of the United States of the time, and with constant threat of air power, and with the best scientists leaving the nation before the war, Germany had little chance of achieving anything in the time frame. There are so many other really important discoveries and manufacturing expertise that allowed us to create the first bombs. The explosive lenses for example that created the implosion type bomb were a manufacturing feat in themselves.
Nice story, but the "Uranverein" never had a chance to make a bomb, even with 10 times more heavy water. For the production of a sufficient amount of Plutonium 239 you need a reactor with carbon as moderator.
I didn't realise how strong the professor was, he's handling that heavy water like it was normal water!
Looks can be deceiving 👌
Radioactive superpowers...!
Ea give me battlefield 2042
Martyn Banner
you should put a cross through ea in ur profile picture
What a kind gesture, couldn't have gone to anyone better!
Agreed. I like stuff like that, that gesture of "I don't want this and have no need for it, so I will give it to someone who I know will value it much more than I will"
I like how enthusiastic the professor is.
Me too! He's like a child during christmas XD
I had a physics teacher like him; he was so engaging I hardly even had to take notes. That was a fun class.
His passion for learning and teaching is very refreshing.
I like how the Prof. connects Chemistry with History in these videos. Get your academics in for the day!
How very kind of that man to gift the professor the heavy water.
Having been to the plant a few times, there's a really cool war museum there now that i highly recommend anyone visit if you are in the area!
I've visited Norway a couple of times, but I'll probably never be able to do so again due to the insane expenses of holidaying there...
@@VideoDotGoogleDotCom that is quite understandable, we have a lot of tourists tenting, I imagine because of the cost (and they like to obviously (
So that's a possibility, though, comes with its own challenges
didn't know you watch Periodic Videos
nice to see you here
A fascinating follow-up story to this is that around the same time, the entire Norwegian stock of heavy water was moved in secret to Canada (not directly, and it's journey is a fascinating story all to it's own) to keep it away from the Germans, and this in turn sparked the creation of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, and the Candu heavy water moderated nuclear reactor design.
the short version of the story : smuggled out of Norway, to France, days before Germany invaded, smuggled out of Paris days before the Germans got there, Smuggled out of France to UK when it became clear that France was going to have to give it to the Germans, and then sent to Canada.
Each part is a story by itself
@@tenalafel Do you know where there is more detail on this story?
What a wonderful gift to give to the Professor to share with his students.
Professor can perform Infrared Spectroscopy of this D2O vial - without breaking it - and you can show it to us how it's differ from normal H2O Spectroscopy... just an Idea for next video :-)
Won't work, at least not in the normal sense. I thought about this too. The ampoule is made of normal glass and will be totally opaque to far IR light, so an FTIR scan is not possible. You MAY be able to do a near IR spectrum on it and look for the slight shift in the 3rd overtone of the OH stretching mode (the effect that makes normal water blue and D2O colorless), but the absorbance there is tiny and you need a huge path length to see it - gonna be very difficult with that small sample. The only options are probably going to be some type of specialized NMR setup or Raman scattering if you want to know for sure without breaking it open.
@@Muonium1 thank you for explanation. That's what I thought after posting the comment - can't comment about possibility of Raman or NMR as not having enough experience on that. I don't think anybody will be in favor of breaking a vial and use tiny amount for Spectroscopy - but it would be very informative for general users if Bredy makes any video on Spectroscopy using other samples
That is a beautiful piece of history and a great gifted telling of history.
Great to see Professor is still in good health!
Periodic Videos wouldn’t be the same without him. He’s the cornerstone
I will never forget the episode of Hogan's Heroes when Stalag 13 was used as a storage facility for heavy water being transported through the country. They convinced Colonel Klink that he could regrow his hair by drinking the heavy water 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I thought that was him in the thumbnail for a second lol
@MichaelKingsfordGray Hogan was a hero not Hogan coward
One of my Great Uncles was involved in this operation, he was a part of the Norwegian resistance
The lake is called Tinnsjøren (also called Tinnsjå) and is NOT a fjord but a freshwater lake with anavegare depth of 190 metres (max 400 m).
14 Norwegians and 4 Germans were killed in the sinking of the D/F Hydro; even compared to the casualties of WWII in Norway alone this is a very small number
There ARE lakes in Norway where fjord forms part of the name, but they are all fresh water.
The ‘proper’ fjords are all inlets of the sea with salty water on the coast of Norway.
Vemork/Rjukan where the factory lies, is quite a distance from the coast.
Fun fact, owing to the mountains surrounding Rjukan, they got less sunshine than parts of the country lying within the Arctic circle, so they've built huge mirrors to reflect the sunlight so that they can see the sun before May.
Wierdly enough, I recently read about the sun mirrors. They also have them at a village in Italy which is in a similar situation. Strange how random things I read on the internet sync up sometimes! The sunlight really, really helps people to feel better, it even helps with depression. I live in Scotland which is very gloomy indeed for half the year, so I built myself some super intense cold white LED panels for my desk, it really helps. Humans need bright light, it's a strange thing indeed.
@@goose300183 You might look into getting an actual sun lamp; LEDs provide very specific wavelengths and don't properly mimic sunlight, so you might get better effect from a purpose-built item.
Either way, I'm glad what you've made is helping you.
I really enjoyed your video! Very informative. You know that movie was old just by looking at how young Kirk Douglas was.
@MichaelKingsfordGray Think of all the time you spend posting childish insults in TH-cam comments and what you could achieve if you had that time back...
concerned viewer: "i dont want possibly dangerous water in my surrounding"
codys lab: "heavy water does not taste that much different".
:D
I think he said it tasted slightly sweet.
The most heart wrenching moment (don't quote me on it though, maybe not true) was relatives forgiving the commandoes for sinking the ferry full of people
And it was all for nothing, because the Germans were not anywhere close to making an atom bomb.
@@peterfireflylund hindsight is 20/20 my dude
I used to live not too far from The heavy water plants at Vemork. It's really beautiful there, and is definitely worth a visit if you're interested in Chemistry or Wartime history. And nature, of course.
I love how exited Professor Martyn is with things that would make me as happy as he is!
I love this brave story and I’ve grown up knowing it. I live close to the factory where the operation took place.
Regarding the second operation of attacking the ship - these tanks of D2O were recovered many years later, and some tanks were completely intact, they had just sunk. As a commodity, Norsk Hydro took this heavy water and made ampules much like the one shown in this video and handed them out to the public if one applied for one. I did, and have a vial of this heavy water in my possession, and it’s a great piece of history!
1:50 "So of course I said yes!" - best part of the video 😁
Professor Sir Martyn has something in common with another great science communicator, Sir David Attenborough. Both of them are a fairly advanced age but both speak with genuine excitement and enthusiasm for their subjects. It's inspiring to see.
Very nice of that man to give that precious heirloom to a proper chemist.
It’s Unbelievable the things you have accumulated!!! From the graphite reactor fragments taken from the original Chicago pile, to the heavy water sample in this video…
As someone who collects radioactive elements, sources, and artifacts pertaining to the development and history of nuclear science … This is just lovely and I love seeing these beautiful things you have collected. I live about 10 minutes outside of Oak Ridge Tennessee… Born and raised here… And I’ve been interested in this stuff and started my collection when I was about 18
Dear Professor, I remember very well during a lesson of Inorganic Chemistry 2 at Univ. Ca' Foscari of Venice (Italy), when Prof. Lucio Cattalini mentioned the same movie and the same story, while he was teaching deuterium properties and compounds. A little nostalgia returns.
Nice episode. My great grandfather was on that ferry when it exploded. He managed to swim ashore, but his friend drowned. The ferry is still at the bottom of "Tinn sea" at 460 meters, and some years ago they even managed to salvage one of the barrels with heavy water. You can still see the "sister ferry" Ammonia at the lake there (they had two ferries at the time). The ferry is now a museum, and well worth a visit.
Worth mentioning that "norsk" is Norwegian for "Norwegian."
“English” is inglés for “inglés”
@@jasonlast7091 Um... But the meaning of "Norsk" is actually relevant to the video. And Prof. Poliakoff explains the other, obvious, half of the company's name in the video.
@@beeble2003 Um… but the meaning of my comment is actually relevant to @Ze Rubenator’s comment and not the video, evidenced by the fact that it was a reply to the comment and not the video.
@@jasonlast7091 Then I don't understand your comment.
@@beeble2003 Evidently
Martin is a treasure.
This is indeed, a fact
He is an international treasure and must be protected at all costs
Thank You Syd & John Pearson
You're welcome.
Amazing story. Periodic Videos never disappoints us.
What an awesome gift, Professor!
And I also wanted to add that later on, after the sabotage of the heavy water plant, the Norwegian Resistance fighters also blew up and sank a ferry that transported the stock of already produced heavy water.
The ferry is still at the bottom of Tinn lake, and several years ago a team of scientists and historians have retrieved one of the sealed heavy water barrels and tested its content. And, what do you know, it's still well preserved and contains heavy water!
"The Man In The White Suit" was definitely an great film!
If the Professor likes heavy water this much, maybe he would love HEAVY METAL!
I imagine that's more up Neil's alley.
Check out Professor Philip Moriarty's (also on this channel) book "When the Uncertainty Principle Goes to 11: Or how to Explain Quantum Physics with Heavy Metal" Brilliant!
I can't imagine Sir Martyn rocking a mullet. 😅
I'm happy to see the professor is still going strong. Keep these wonderful videos coming good sir.
Not far from where I grew up, southern Ontario, is Douglas Point Nuclear Generating Station.
As a CANDU, Canadian Deuterium/Uranium reactor, there is the constant need for heavy water. There is a heavy water plant of site that uses Hydrogen Sulfide gas rather than electrolysis to concentrated the heavy water.
A new Periodic Video? Yes, please!
what an interesting story. So connected with our recent history.
Not just any heavy water, but a very historic one. That is very cool.
1:50 Gotta love the professor's excitement there :-)
can you do spectroscopy on the D2O?
My grandfather, was a Commando who took part in a raid on the Telemark heavy water plant. When he died in 1991, the Norwegian government insisted on paying for his tombstone, which has a small inscription that commemorating his part in the raid. From what he told me, his mission was to sabotage an electric power plant or substation Among other things, this involved the improvised cutting through an live 11kV cable with an axe. He did not talk much about his war time activities, but cutting this cable must have made an impression, as it was one of the few events he was prepared to relate.
Hi, I want to reccomend to the professor the norwegian movie that was made. Operation Swallow: The Battle for Heavy Water
In it some of the actual commandoes that partook in the raid are playing their own parts, and its made as an reenactment of the raids.
The american one is an action movie and not very accurate to the actual raid...
The "American" one is actually British, though starring famous American actors because of the persistent belief that Americans only want to watch other Americans in movies.
I would also recommend Ray Mears' Real Heroes of Telemark, where modern Norwegian Army members follow in the footsteps of the raid, the history is told properly, and they get to meet up with the surviving members of the original raid.
Funny story; one of the commandoes (Knut Haugland) wasn't available for the filming of this movie because he was on the Kon-Tiki expedition at the time of filming.
Love this guys videos I always watch until the very end
The UK and the Americans chose graphite as a neutron moderator in their respective "Tube Alloys" and "Manhatten Project". This Germans did not and went for D2O because a measurement error determined the absorption cross section of graphite too high (by a factor of two I believe). I read this in "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Rhodes.
Excellent book -- basically the definitive book on the Manhattan Project and well worth reading for anyone who's interested in the area.
That was because the Germans couldn't produce boron free graphite. Boron absorbs neutrons very well.
I remember watching that movie when I was young. What a bit of luck that someone's dad worked on the movie that had a sample of heavy water and offered it to you to help teach future generation of people.
OMG!
This is my family history.
My grandfather worked at the plant at the time of the sabotage. He was in the building when the bomb went off.
I have read all of the books.
The Norwegian version of the movie (Kampen om tungtvannet 1948) is the best version.
Shame i cant add a link in the comments. But if you guys google tungtvannskjelleren 3d map.
You can explore the cellar, almost like you are there
Thanks for this fascinating bit of scientific, military, and cinematic history all in one!
This narrator is the most British person I’ve seen all decade. Sitting in a country garden, Knick knacks on the table, lovely country house behind him. I’m sure I would’ve been invited for tea were I there after filming wrapped. 🇬🇧
Hey I would love to see a video about ozone! The history, why it can exist, why it is more abundant in the upper atmosphere, why it’s such a powerful oxidizer, etc.
I used to live 10 minutes away from the Vemork plant :D
What a fabulous story, many of my favourite films are there too!
That is so cool that they would rather you have it to show what it is and the history behind it!!
I've been trying to find this movie for ages, haven't seen it since I was 13. Nice!
You can buy it on Amazon for £6.49.
This video is remarkable and wonderful, the way it weaves science, history, and art together.
That is one hell of a thing to have!
no you have to pay to get it.
I have a tiny sample from the barrels of the sunken ship.
quite the awesome story
The barrels are still down at the bottom of the Fyord on the train on the ferry.
Doesn't matter if they leak. 1 in about 4000 water molecules have a deuterium atom in place of a hydrogen, so Tinnsjøen already has way more deuterium than in the tanks anyway. Also, it's not a fjord, it's a lake.
@@phizc Cool insights looks more like a Loch to me.
I've always wondered what percentage of a sample is actually D2O rather than DHO? Also, since many processes for concentrating D2O would also concentrate any Tritium present; how much of a sample is T2O, DTO and THO? Being that the half life of Tritium is just 12 years, such an old sample probably wouldn't have much left if, if any.
Apparently the presence of concentrated deuterium gives water a slightly sweet taste and is used as a medical tracer. However, since it is less reactive than Hydrogen water and has a higher freezing point, it isn't advisable to consume more than 500ppm by blood volume (aprox. 0.0025ml) in a 48 hour span, as this is the time it takes for the kidneys to filter it out.
Heavy water is routinely used in chemical analysis and the catalog of any large laboratory supply distributor (Fisher Scientific, Sigma-Aldrich, etc) will have it in a variety of purity grades (99.9% is typical, and 99.95% is readily available). Its price is not remarkable comparing to many other laboratory chemicals -- about a dollar for a gram.
For all intents and purposes, tritium content in commercial heavy water is zero, because it is obtained from the ordinary water. Only when heavy water is bombarded with neutrons in the nuclear reactor, some small concentration of tritium is produced, and it can be extracted for use in battery-less lights, atomic bombs, etc...
i remember the professor mentioning the story once before
FASCINATING NONE THE LESS
THANKS
Thank you Martin & Brady!
Professor ...youre my spirit animal and I appreciate your love of science.
Thank you for sharing your mind with us and your students and colleges, my dear friend
Oh and thanks to the heavy water guy!
What a nice scene, a great lesson from Martyn in the back garden.
Chemistry unboxed!
There's a show about the Deuterium called "Kampen om tungtvannet" in Norwegian, (The Heavy Water War) its on IMDB. Its a mini series that aired on NRK1 (The Norwegian National TV Channel) in 2015. Language is Norwegian, and I dont know if it has English subtitles, but if you can find it. Its really worth the watch. Some parts of the series is in UK so naturally its in English.
Thanks for sharing Jon
You're welcome - I knew the Doc would be thrilled with it...
love these videos
but really need subtitles please
I love the professor, especially when he's this excited!
Amazingly I knew Syd Pearson in his later life when he was the chief analytical chemist at Thos Wragg & Sons Ltd, a now long defunct company. I was a callow youth of 18 in my gap year and took a summer job as a leb tech.
Waiting for IUPAC to name the next noble gas as Martyn
He’s noble indeed
Ah, but they'll insist on calling it "marton" to get the ending right. Or "martine" if they name a halogen after him.
The men that sabotaged the plant also worked with James Bond and Saruman (Ian Fleming and Sir Christopher Lee)
Saruman and James Bond…strange co-workers to work with
@@DoiInthanon1897 it was always rumored that Ian Fleming based Bond's adventures off spy operations he was involved in during WWII
The Viking Longship logo was the emblem of the Telemark Battalion
It actually _is_ the emblem of the Telemark Battalion (TMBN), and while the raid was in Vemork, Telemark, the Battalion has roots stretching all the way back to 1789. So it wasn't named exclusively to honour these raids during the occupation, but I guess they couldn't have picked another name.
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The primary purpose of the heavy water is not heat removal, but as a moderator. Natural uranium (with only 0.7% U235) will not function in a reactor unless fast neutrons are slowed down to thermal velocities so that fission of the U235 can take place and criticality can be maintained which will not happen with fast neutrons being captured by the U238 and not fissioning.
Fermi's experimental reactor in Chicago used graphite as a moderator, as did the British Magnox and AGR power stations (which used CO2 as coolant). Light water will only work if the uranium is enriched.
I bought a vial of heavy water as a souvenir when I visited Vemork factory in Rjukan Norway. If I'm not mistaken it was about 25 Euros at the time. And as far as I know they still sell them. Not in nice packaging like the professor got. But in a see through plastic box containing the vial.
3:20 Translation of the full company name on the vial's lable: "Norsk Hydro-Elektrisk Kvælstofaktieselskab" = Norwegian Hydro-Electric Nitrogen Ltd. Literally "kvælstof" is "strangle substance/stuff", and is an archaic name for N2 in Norwegian and Danish. Aktie = stock (now spelled aksje) and selskab (selskap) = company, which is nowadays commonly found abbreviated as A/S or AS in Norwegian company names. I believe the nitrogen or fertilizer division is now called Yara while the part still called Norsk Hydro is mainly concerned with (hydro-electric) production of aluminium.
Thanks! I always find details like this interesting.
They have dived down to the ship and retrieve a barrel with heavy water that you can see in the museum at Vemork
Between that and the German misconception that reactor-grade graphite was impossible, we got lucky.
The germans would never get to the stage of developing the weapon before the allies. 1) The scientific minds nessesary had all fled the country or being killed for refusing to help the nazis. 2) The effort put into development of the bomb was pitiful. 3) The americans put a considerable portion of its industrial might towards the task.
At that time, Heisenberg had little knowledge of fast neutron reactions, separating U235, or plutonium. You can read the transcriptions of the German scientists' reactions to the bombing of Hiroshima in the book, "Operation Epsilon - The Farm Hall Transcripts."
@@mats6565 did you read the comment you replied to? lol
Yep, and now we have transexual children and we'll be eating the bugs soon...at least we're not speaking German, ammi right?
If somebody is interessted in more of the story and life of the Norwegian commandos during the war I would recommend "kampen on tungtvannet" (Norwegian title) or "the saboteures" (UK title). 6 part miniseries from 2015, 45 min each episode.
loving the periodic table mug haha
Thank you very much for this video, it gave me an answer to something from my childhood. I vaguely remember watching this movie with my grandad who fought in WWII and I can only picture in my memory that exact part of it with the water dripping that you showed and it's been stuck in my head for years, but I never knew the name of the movie. Now I can watch it now knowing the title and see if it brings back any other memories of my grandad to me.
It really is quite fascinating to read about how the Germans completely failed to recognize Graphite as a moderator.
they didn't fail to recognize it at all, it was a well known possible moderator. they failed to recognize that the exceptionally high neutron absorption cross-section of boron contaminants at the ppm level in their graphite was poisoning the reaction and never obtained boron free graphite.
@@Muonium1 They tested Graphite early and discarded it as an option because of this. They thought the graphite itself was causing the behavior, not contamination.
@@tommihommi1 um ya, that's....pretty much what I just said.
Yeah there a videos online of the graphite cubes that hung around the reactor built by the Germans. I’m terms of their competency in building a reactor, they were only a few years behind the allies.
Because is wasn't White..
An episode of the documentary series called Drain the Oceans has a whole episode about the sunken ferry, it’s very interesting
Absolutely superb. I would love to attend one of Professor Poliakoff's lectures.
I was watching several years ago a cooking show with a well known Scandanavian chef Andreas Viestad from Norway or Sweden who was using heavy water outdoors perhaps I think(don't recall) to heat the item he was preparing or for some other reason. In any case he warned everyone in the t.v. audience not to drink this. It is poisonous and deadly!!!
Drinking saturated saltwater is more dangerous lol
the muppet cook was Swedish
@@Blacktronics: Either that or eating huge amounts of salt was a way of committing suicide in China by probably lower classes thousands of years ago and probably elsewhere in the world.
I didn't know Sparatacus did that raid in Norway...that's really cool he did that..
The German atom bomb program was scrapped just because of the lack of heavy water, so however fastly the factory was rebuilt, the attack was enough to stop the Germans from getting an atom bomb.
All the minds needed to actually build one had also long left Germany and gone to the US
They had enough to make it, it just that Heisenberg miscalculated so badly they thought they needed tons upon tons of fissile material to make a nuclear bomb. Hence why they didn't focus so much on it and rather focused on getting heavy water. One of the better stabilizing agents known at the start of the war.
@@RedKrossSquad source?
@@RedKrossSquad it's said that Heisenberg did that on purpose to mislead the Nazis.
The poor guy who owned the sample before thought it was a "bottle of potentially poisonous liquid", mate you could snap that ampoule open and down it and be perfectly fine. I doubt any of us non-billionaires could afford even remotely enough to drink to experience any negative effects.
Glad it ended up with the professor though. Much better than the trash!
Typical irrational fear from anything 'chemical'🤦😡
@@m.ch4.257 Didn't have the brain to deserve owning it
@@Blacktronics That is wholly uncalled for.
@@ValleysOfRain imagine getting 3rd party offended on the internet
IRC it's roughly as poisonous as ethanol. So may not be completely trivial you may have some symptoms, but probably fine.
I remember Hogan's heroes where they had heavy water from Denmark, then Klink thought it'd grow his hair back lol
Every single time I hear about heavy water, I think about that episode.
John Pearson, thank you. Legend!
I have read that because civilians might be killed authorisation for sinking the ferry went right to the king of Norway (who was in exile in Britain), and also that after the war divers recovered one or more of the sunk tanks and verified that they did indeed contain heavy water.
aahhh heroes of telemark. loved heroes of telemark.
The viking ship is the logo of Norsk Hydro. The company still exists, but the logo has since been stylized to almost unrecognisability, as is the trend nowadays it seems. Which imo is unfortunate; the older logo looks a lot classier to me, rather than the pseudo-stylish new one... it just smacks of "2010's startup company" while company actually has a long history, which the old style logo would have been indicative of. Their fertilizer division was separated out into a new company called Yara, and it too has a viking ship as a logo and at least there the ship is still recognisable as a ship.
There's also a Norwegian miniseries called the Heavy Water Wars (or the Saboteurs depending where in the English speaking world you are) that was produced a few years ago. It's really well down and I highly recommend it!
Thanks for sharing
I was just thinking about the series The Heavy Water War. I saw that a few years back, there was a lot of neat info. I remember it being like a half documentary/half drama kind of thing.
Best Unboxing video ever.
Without the manufacturing power of the United States of the time, and with constant threat of air power, and with the best scientists leaving the nation before the war, Germany had little chance of achieving anything in the time frame. There are so many other really important discoveries and manufacturing expertise that allowed us to create the first bombs. The explosive lenses for example that created the implosion type bomb were a manufacturing feat in themselves.
Called into service
And knew what to do
They were the heroes of the snow
Warrior soul
0:22 I want to hear that guy say "HooOOOoogaannn!"
Nice story, but the "Uranverein" never had a chance to make a bomb, even with 10 times more heavy water.
For the production of a sufficient amount of Plutonium 239 you need a reactor with carbon as moderator.
Heroes of the Telemark
Carry Viking blood in veins
Warriors of the northern land
They live forevermore