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The "Father" of the Soviet atomic bomb Academician Igor Kurchatov was born January 12, 1903 in Ufa province Simskaya Plant (now - Sim City in the Chelyabinsk region). It is called one of the founders of the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Graduated with honors from the Simferopol gymnasium and evening craft school in September 1920, Kurchatov entered the Physics and Mathematics of the University of Tauride. Three years later he graduated early from high school success. In 1930 Kurchatov headed the Physics Department of the Leningrad Physico -Technical Institute.
Work in the field of the atomic nucleus in the USSR began in the 1930s. In all-Union conferences USSR Academy of Sciences of the time participated physicists and chemists not only Soviet research centers, but also foreign experts. In 1932, samples were obtained radium in 1939 was calculated chain reaction of fission of heavy atoms. A landmark in the development of the nuclear program was in 1940: employees Ukrainian Physico-Technical Institute have applied for a breakthrough at the time the invention: the atomic bomb design and methods of use of uranium-235. First conventional explosives was proposed to use as a primer to create a critical mass and initiate a chain reaction. In the future, nuclear bombs undermined exactly as proposed by scientists UPTI centrifugal method and to this day is the foundation of the industrial separation of uranium isotopes.
The proposals were Kharkiv and significant flaws. As noted in an article for the scientific and technical journal "Engine" Ph.D Alexander Medved, " scheme proposed by the authors of the uranium charge in principle is not workable However, the value of the authors offer was great, because it is this scheme can be considered the first in the country discussed at the official level proposal for the actual construction of a nuclear bomb. " Application long gone to authorities, but has not been adopted, and finally lay on the shelf marked "Top Secret."
In 1941, the USSR began to receive intelligence from the U.S. and the UK on the deployment of intensive work to develop nuclear weapons. Academician Pyotr Kapitsa, speaking October 12, 1941 by anti-fascist meeting of scientists, said: " the atomic bomb, even small size, if it is feasible, easily could destroy a large metropolitan city with several million people ". September 28, 1942 adopted a resolution " On the organization of the uranium " - this date is the start of the Soviet nuclear project. The following spring, specifically for the production of the first Soviet bomb was created Laboratory number 2 USSR. The question arose: who to entrust management of the newly created structure. "We need to find a talented and relatively young physicist, nuclear solution to the problem was the only thing in his life. And we will give him the power, make an academician and, of course, will vigilantly monitor its " - ordered by Stalin.
Initially, the list of candidates was about fifty families. Beria proposed to stop the choice on Kurchatov, and in October 1943 it was called to Moscow to the bride. Now research center, which over the years has transformed the laboratory, named after its first head - "Kurchatov Institute".
RDS-1 was performed in a free falling bomb large diameter and mass. Charge of the atomic bomb made from plutonium. Ballistic body bombs and electrical installations have been home development. Structurally, the RDS- 1 included a nuclear warhead, ballistic body large diameter bombs, explosive device and equipment automation systems undermine charge protection systems. Taking the American plutonium bomb, the Soviet physicist faced with a problem, which had to be solved in a short period, at the time of development of production of plutonium in the Soviet Union had not yet begun.
At the initial stage we used the captured uranium. But large industrial reactor demanded no less than 150 tons of material. In late 1945, returned to work the mines in Czechoslovakia and East Germany. In 1946, uranium deposits have been found in Kolyma, in the Chita region, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and the North Caucasus, near Pyatigorsk.
The first commercial reactor and reprocessing plant "Mayak" began to build in the Urals, near the town of Kyshtym, 100 km north of Chelyabinsk. Bookmark uranium reactor personally supervised Kurchatov. In 1947 he was deployed to build three more atomic cities: two - in the Middle Urals (Sverdlovsk- 44, Sverdlovsk- 45) and one - in the Gorky region (Arzamas- 16).
Construction works were rapidly, but not enough uranium. Even in early 1948, the first commercial reactor could not be started. Uranus is the seventh downloaded in June 1948. Kurchatov took over the main reactor control console operator. Between eleven and twelve o'clock at night, he began to experiment physical start-up of the reactor. At zero hours thirty minutes of June 8, 1948 the reactor reached a hundred kilowatts of power, and then drowned Kurchatov chain reaction. The next stage of the preparation of the reactor lasted two days. After cooling water was clear that the implementation of the existing chain reaction in the reactor uranium enough. Only after downloading portions fifth reactor reached a critical state, and again became possible chain reaction. This happened in June tenth at eight o'clock in the morning.
June 17 in the journal Early shift supervisors Kurchatov recorded: " I warn you that if you stop the water supply will have a blast, so under no circumstances should not be discontinued water supply It is necessary to monitor the level of water in emergency tanks and pumping station. " June 19, 1948 at 12 hours and 45 minutes held industrial commissioning of the first nuclear reactor in Eurasia. Ten kilograms of plutonium - the amount pledged to the American bomb - have been accumulated in the Soviet Union in June 1949. Head experience Kurchatov, in accordance with the instructions of Beria, ordered the trial RDS-1 on August 29.
Under the test site was allotted plot Irtysh waterless steppes of Kazakhstan, about 170 kilometers west of Semipalatinsk. In the center of the experimental field diameter of about 20 kilometers was mounted metal lattice tower height of 37.5 meters. It set the RDS- 1.
The charge is a multilayer structure in which the contributions of the active substance in the critical state was accomplished by compressing it through a converging spherical detonation wave in the explosive. After the explosion, the tower was completely destroyed, in its place a crater. But the main damage was from the shock wave. Eyewitnesses described that when the next day - August 30 - a trip to the experimental field trial participants saw a terrible picture: railway and road bridges were mangled and thrown 20-30 meters, cars and machinery were scattered across the steppe at a distance of 50-80 meters from the place of installation, houses have been completely destroyed. Tanks, which verifies the impact force, lay on their sides with whipped towers, gun turned into a pile of twisted metal, burned ten " experimental " cars "Victory". Total 5 bombs were manufactured RDS-1. In the Air Force, they have not been transferred, and were stored in Arzamas-16. Currently mock bombs exhibited in the museum of nuclear weapons in Sarov (formerly Arzamas -16).
Sources
Holloway, David (1994), Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy 1939–1956, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-06056-4.
Kojevnikov, Alexei (2004), Stalin's Great Science: The Times and Adventures of Soviet Physicists, Imperial College Press, ISBN 1-86094-420-5.
Rhodes, Richard (1995), Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-80400-X.
Norris, Robert S., and Thomas B. Cochran. "Nuclear Weapons Tests and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions by the Soviet Union: August 29, 1949 to October 24, 1990." Natural Resource Defense Council. Web. 19 May 2013.
Goldman, Marvin. “The Russian Radiation Legacy: Its Integrated Impact and Lessons.” Environmental Health Perspectives 105.6 (1997): 1385-91. JSTOR. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.
