Tinn is a municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the traditional districts of Aust-Telemark and Upper Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Rjukan. Some of the villages in Tinn include Atrå, Austbygde, Hovin, and Miland.
Norsk Hydro ASA is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. It is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide. It has operations in some 50 countries around the world and is active on all continents. The Norwegian state owns 34.3% of the company through the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries. A further 6.5% is owned by Folketrygdfond, which administers the Government Pension Fund of Norway. Norsk Hydro employs approximately 35,000 people. Hilde Merete Aasheim has been the CEO since May, 2019.
Rjukan is a town in Tinn Municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The town is also the administrative centre of Tinn Municipality. The town is located in the Vestfjorddalen valley, between the lakes Møsvatn and Tinnsjå. The municipal council of Tinn declared town status for Rjukan in 1996. The town is located about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) to the west of the village of Miland and about 20 kilometres (12 mi) to the northwest of the village of Tuddal.
The Norwegian heavy water sabotage was a series of Allied-led efforts to halt German heavy water production via hydroelectric plants in Nazi Germany-occupied Norway during World War II, involving both Norwegian commandos and Allied bombing raids. During the war, the Allies sought to inhibit the German development of nuclear weapons with the removal of heavy water and the destruction of heavy-water production plants. The Norwegian heavy water sabotage was aimed at the 60 MW Vemork power station at the Rjukan waterfall in Telemark.
Operation Freshman was the codename given to a British airborne operation conducted in November 1942 during World War II. It was the first British airborne operation using Airspeed Horsa gliders, and its target was the Vemork Norsk Hydro hydrogen electrolysis plant in Telemark, Norway which produced heavy water as a by-product.
The Heroes of Telemark is a 1965 British war film directed by Anthony Mann based on the true story of the Norwegian heavy water sabotage during the Second World War from Skis Against the Atom, the memoirs of Norwegian resistance soldier Knut Haukelid. The film stars Kirk Douglas as Dr. Rolf Pedersen and Richard Harris as Knut Straud, along with Ulla Jacobsson as Anna Pederson. It was filmed on location in Norway.
Knut Haukelid was a Norwegian military officer. He was a Norwegian resistance movement soldier during World War II, most notable for participating in the Norwegian heavy water sabotage.
Møsvatn or Møsvann is a lake in Vinje Municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is the tenth-largest lake in Norway with a surface area of 79.1 square kilometres (30.5 sq mi) and a volume of 1,573,523,000 cubic metres (1,275,676 acre⋅ft). The lake lies just east of the Hardangervidda National Park, in Skien watershed (Skiensvassdrag) catchment area. The lake discharges into the Måna river at a dam located on the Vinje-Tinn municipal border. The lake has an irregular shape with three arms. The longest length across the lake is about 40 kilometres (25 mi). Møsvatn is a shallow mountain lake by Norwegian standards, reaching a maximum depth of 68.5 metres (225 ft).
Joachim Holmboe Rønneberg was a Norwegian Army officer and broadcaster. He was known for his resistance work during World War II, most notably commanding Operation Gunnerside, and his post-war war information work.
Knut Magne Haugland, DSO, MM, was a resistance fighter and noted explorer from Norway, who accompanied Thor Heyerdahl on his famous 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition.
The Rjukan Line, at first called the Vestfjorddal Line, was a 16-kilometre (10 mi) Norwegian railway line running through Vestfjorddalen between Mæl and Rjukan in Telemark county. The railway's main purpose was to transport chemicals from Norsk Hydro's plant at Rjukan to the port at Skien, in addition to passenger transport. At Mæl the wagons were shipped 30 kilometres (19 mi) on the Tinnsjø railway ferry to Tinnoset where they connected to the Tinnoset Line. The Rjukan Line and the ferries were operated by Norsk Transport, a subsidiary of Norsk Hydro.
The Tinnoset Line was a 30-kilometer (19 mi) long Norwegian railway line that went from Tinnoset to Notodden in Telemark county. The railway was part of the transport chain used to transport fertilizer from Norsk Hydro's factory in Rjukan to the port in Skien. The railway opened in 1909 and was closed when the plant closed in 1991. The railway is sometimes mistakenly believed to be part of the Rjukan Line.
SF Hydro was a Norwegian steam powered railway ferry that operated in the first half of the 20th century on Lake Tinn in Telemark. It connected with the Rjukan Line and Tinnoset Line, at Mæl and Tinnoset, operating between 1914 and 1944. The combined track and ferry service was primarily used to transport raw materials and fertilizer from Norsk Hydro's factory at Rjukan to the port in Skien. It was the target of a Norwegian operation on 20 February 1944, when resistance fighters sank the ferry in the deepest part of Lake Tinn to prevent Nazi Germany from receiving heavy water.
Leif Hans Larsen Tronstad DSO, OBE was a Norwegian inorganic chemist, intelligence officer and military organizer. He graduated from the Norwegian Institute of Technology in 1927 and was a prolific researcher and writer of academic publications. A professor of chemistry at the Norwegian Institute of Technology from 1936, he was among the pioneers of heavy water research, and was instrumental when a heavy water plant was built at Vemork.
Norwegian Industrial Workers Museum is an industrial museum located at Rjukan in Tinn, Norway. Located in the Vemork power station, it was established in 1988 to allow the preservation of industrial society created by Norsk Hydro when they established themselves in Rjukan in 1907. The museum is an anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage.
Norsk Hydro Rjukan is an industrial facility operated by Norsk Hydro at Rjukan in Tinn, Norway, from 1911 to 1991. The plant manufactured chemicals related to the production of fertilizer, initially potassium nitrate from arc-produced nitric acid and later ammonia, hydrogen, and heavy water. The location was chosen for its vicinity to hydroelectric power plants built in the Måna river.
Einar Skinnarland DCM was a Norwegian resistance fighter during the Second World War.
Jens-Anton Poulsson DSO, was a Norwegian military officer. During World War II he was a Norwegian resistance member, especially noted for his role in the heavy water sabotage 1942–1943. He continued his military career after the war, and was appointed colonel in 1968.
The Rjukan–Notodden Industrial Heritage Site is a World Heritage Site in Telemark county, Norway, created to protect the industrial landscape around Lake Heddalsvatnet and Vestfjorddalen valley. 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.
The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler’s Atomic Bomb is a 2016 military history book by Neal Bascomb. It tells the story of the Norwegian operation to sabotage the Vemork heavy water plant during World War II.
