P-9 Project
Three nuclear reactors were built using the heavy water produced by the P-9 Project: Chicago Pile 3 at Argonne, and ZEEP and NRX at the Chalk River Laboratories in Canada.
[2] His mentor Gilbert Newton Lewis isolated the first sample of pure heavy water by electrolysis in 1933.
They carried out experiments on uranium using ordinary water, but had found that the hydrogen atoms absorbed neutrons, thus preventing the desired chain reaction.
[6] The problem with using heavy water was that it was scarce, and scientists could not readily acquire the quantities required by a reactor.
At Columbia University in the United States, Enrico Fermi and Leó Szilárd attempted to use graphite as a moderator instead.
[4] On 2 December 1942, Fermi's team initiated the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in an experimental reactor known as Chicago Pile-1.
On 26 February 1941, the Canadian National Research Council inquired about its ability to produce heavy water.
There might be no post-war demand for heavy water, and the patent on the process was held by Albert Edgar Knowles, so a profit-sharing agreement would be required.
[6][8] There the matter rested until 6 December 1941, when Blaylock had a meeting with the British physicist G. I. Higson, who informed him that Taylor had become discouraged with Cominco, and had decided to find an alternative source of heavy water.
Blaylock agreed to produce heavy water at Trail, and quickly secured approval from the chairman of the board, Sir Edward Beatty.
The Canadian Government did not officially learn of the project until August 1942,[10][11] shortly before construction began the following month.
[12] The running cost of the plant averaged $32,979 per month over the period from June 1943 to December 1946,[13] when the Manhattan Project was replaced by the Atomic Energy Commission.
[10] The Director of the Manhattan Project, Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, Jr., had, in November 1942, recruited DuPont as the prime contractor for the construction of a plutonium production complex.
Locating them at Ordnance plants saved the cost of acquiring land, since it was already owned by the government, and they already had personnel and utilities, including steam generating equipment.
[20] Following the end of the war, DuPont ended their operations at the MOW and the site was leased to various chemical companies until the early 1950s before standing vacant until 1962 when the area was purchased from the United States General Services Administration for the price of $1.25 million by the Morgantown Community Association.
Remedy construction began in 2001 and included the consolidation of contaminated materials into an on-site landfill which was covered with a multi-layer cap.
[23] On 21 August 2018, the EPA removed the Ordnance Works Disposal Areas from the Superfund National Priorities List along with eight other sites.
Total cost was $7,493,157, including DuPont's fee of $152,472, which was voluntarily reduced from $272,776 because the plant was constructed for substantially less than the allocated $13,665,000.
Total cost was $3,466,171, including DuPont's fee of $70,368, which was voluntarily reduced from $184,680 because the plant was constructed for substantially less than the allocated $8,285,000.
The most successful of these was the reconstruction of the first stage towers at Morgantown to reduce leakage, which resulted in a considerable improvement in performance.
An allocation of heavy water was used by the Chalk River Laboratories to build ZEEP under Kowarski's direction, which went critical in September 1945.
