ABSTRACT
Frédéric Joliot-Curie, a prominent French scientist, was the first to see the possibility of creating a natural uranium-fueled nuclear reactor moderated by heavy water. He carried out experiments on uranium with a relatively large quantity of heavy water. At that time the world reserve of D 2 0 was 180 kg, and all of it was in France, where F. Joliot Curie, Hans von Halban, and Lew Kowarski started investigations on building a heavy water reactor in 1939-1940.
