nuclear-news

A Nazi ship with the secret mission of transporting heavy water – an ingredient used for nuclear reactors – has been found by scientists and naval historians in Norway. The 170ft Hydro ferry, which Winston Churchill ordered to be sank in 1944, has been dragged up from the bottom of a 460-ft-deep Norwegian lake near Oslo.

Churchill was unaware of the ship’s purpose but ordered its sinking anyway, a choice that is now believed to have saved Britain’s capital city.

This quantity of heavy water would have been more than enough to catapult Germany on her way to becoming a nuclear power. Naval historian professor Eric Gove told the Daily Telegraph: “After the war, those involved in the German nuclear programme said that the loss of heavy water was absolutely decisive. It stopped their reactor programme in its tracks.”

Norway became a target of the Allies after it began producing water in 1934, above Lake Tinn at Vemork.

Fission is the radioactive decay process where an atom’s nucleus splits into smaller parts.

The scientists needed heavy water in order to control the fission process.

After Hitler invaded Norway in 1940, he ordered his troops to move straight for the nuclear plant in Vemork.

Consequently, Operation Gunnerside was launched in 1943 after Britain feared Hitler would use this substance against his enemies.

Despite blowing up the plant while the Hydro was sunk, the Norwegians did not destroy all the Germany supply of heavy water the Nazis began to move the following year by train and ferry. However, Churchill was already a move ahead.

He and his generals had already ordered their Norway counterparts to attach a bomb to the vessel.

The mission was later documented in The Heroes of Telemark.

Drain the Ocean will appear on National Geographic every week from September 6.