Heavy-water reactor

From top, left to right
  1. Schematic of the CANDU design of commercial heavy water reactors
  2. Chicago Pile-3, the world's first heavy water reactor, built in 1943 for the Manhattan Project
  3. An early patent drawing for a heavy water reactor, by Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard
  4. Bruce Nuclear Generating Station, one of the largest CANDU plants in Canada
  5. Kaiga Generating Station, one of the largest IPHWR plants in India

A heavy water reactor (HWR) is a type of nuclear reactor which uses heavy water (D2O, deuterium oxide) as a neutron moderator. It may also use this as the coolant, in the case of pressurized heavy water reactors. Due to heavy water's low neutron absorption cross section, HWRs can operate with natural uranium fuel.

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