The landscape is centered on the plant built by the Norsk Hydro company to produce calcium nitrate fertilizer from atmospheric nitrogen using the Birkeland–Eyde process.

The complex also includes hydroelectric power plants, railways, transmission lines, factories, and workers' accommodation and social institutions in the towns of Notodden and Rjukan.

[2] On 5 July 2015, it was placed on the World Heritage list[1] under Criteria II and IV with the following description of the Outstanding Universal Value: Located in a dramatic landscape of mountains, waterfalls and river valleys, the site comprises hydroelectric power plants, transmission lines, factories, transport systems and towns.

The company towns of Rjukan and Notodden show workers’ accommodation and social institutions linked by rail and ferry to ports where the fertilizer was loaded.

It stands out as an example of a new global industry in the early 20th century.The Rjukan–Notodden site stretches from Møsvatn lake to Notodden, encompassing 97 discrete structures considered to be culturally significant.

When the power production capability of The Royal Frederick University proved insufficient, the experiments were moved offsite to a warehouse in Kristiania.

[5] The researchers moved the arc furnace at Vassmoen to the Notodden site in order to test the effect of electric power on fertilizer yield.

It was determined that the problems experienced by the Svælgfos plants were due to insulation materials burning at high temperatures caused by a manufacturing error.

Hydrogen) was sabotaged (due to its production of heavy water used in atomic experimentation) by a group of Norwegian partisans who had initially fled Nazi-occupied Norway.

Today, the Vemork power plant building houses the Norwegian Industrial Workers Museum, where the hydroelectric generators are still visible.

Norsk Hydro was approached again in 1920 to use the Haber-Bosch process; this time by the French government, who had gained it as part of a settlement following World War I.