The creation and testing of the first atomic bomb in the USSR. The creation of the atomic bomb in the ussr
In the second half of the 40s, the leadership of the country of the Soviets was much concerned that America already had weapons that were unprecedented in its destructive power, and the Soviet Union had not yet. Immediately after the end of World War II, the country was extremely afraid of the superiority of the United States, whose plans were not only to weaken the position of the USSR in a constant arms race, but, possibly, even to destroy it by nuclear strike. In our country, the fate of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was well remembered.
In order for the threat not to constantly hang over the country, it was urgent to create its own powerful and terrifying weapon. Own atomic bomb. It helped a lot that in their research, Soviet scientists could use the data on the German Fau missiles obtained in the occupation, as well as apply other studies received from Soviet intelligence in the West. For example, very important data was secretly transmitted, risking their lives, by American scientists themselves, who understood the need for nuclear balance.
After the terms of reference were approved, large-scale activities to create an atomic bomb began.
The project management was entrusted to the outstanding atomic scientist Igor Kurchatov, and he headed a specially created committee that was supposed to control the process.
In the process of research, there was a need for a special research organization, on the sites of which this “product” would be designed and developed. Studies conducted by Laboratory N2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences required a remote and preferably uninhabited place. In other words, it was necessary to create a special center for the development of nuclear weapons. Moreover, interestingly, the development was carried out simultaneously in two versions: using plutonium and uranium-235, heavy and light fuels, respectively. Another feature: the bomb had to be of certain sizes:
- no more than 5 meters long;
- with a diameter of not more than 1.5 meters;
- weighing no more than 5 tons.
Such strict parameters of deadly weapons were explained simply: the bomb was developed for a specific model of the aircraft: TU-4, the hatch of which did not allow larger items to pass through.
The first Soviet nuclear weapon had the abbreviation RDS-1. Unofficial transcripts were different, from: “Homeland gives to Stalin”, to: “Russia does it herself,” but in official documents it was interpreted as: “Jet engine“ C ”. In the summer of 1949, an important event for the USSR and the whole world took place: in Kazakhstan, at the Semipalatinsk test site, the test of the created deadly weapons was passed. This happened at 7:00 local time and at 4.00 Moscow time.
It happened on a tower with a height of 37 and a half meters, which was installed in the middle of a twenty-kilometer field. The blast power was 20 kilotons of TNT.
This event once and for all stopped the US nuclear dominance, and the USSR began to proudly be called the second, after the USA, nuclear power in the world.
A month later, TASS was told to the world about the successful testing of nuclear weapons in the Soviet Union, and a month later the scientists who worked on the invention of the atomic bomb were awarded. All of them received high awards and respectable, state awards.
Today, the model of the same bomb, namely: the case, the RDS-1 charge and the remote control with which it was detonated, is in the country's first museum of nuclear weapons. The museum, which stores authentic samples of legendary products, is located in the city of Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod Region.
On August 29, 1949 at exactly 7 o’clock in the vicinity of the city of Semipalatinsk a dazzling light shone. An event of extreme importance occurred: the USSR conducted the test of the first atomic bomb.
This event was preceded by the long and hard work of physicists at the KB-11 design bureau under the scientific supervision of the first director of the Institute of Atomic Energy, the chief scientific adviser of the atomic problem in the USSR Igor Vasilievich Kurchatov and one of the founders of nuclear physics in the USSR, Yuli Borisovich Khariton.
Nuclear project
Igor Vasilievich Kurchatov
The Soviet atomic project was launched on September 28, 1942. It was on that day that the order of the State Defense Committee No. 2352 “On the organization of work on uranium” appeared. And on February 11, 1943, a decision was made to create Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which was supposed to study atomic energy. Igor V. Kurchatov is appointed as the project manager. And in April 1943, at Laboratory No. 2, a special design bureau KB-11 was created to develop nuclear weapons. Its leader is Julius Borisovich Khariton.
The creation of materials and technologies for the first atomic bomb took place in a very intense mode, in difficult post-war conditions. Many instruments, tools, equipment had to be invented and created in the process of work by the team itself.
By then, scientists already imagined what an atomic bomb should look like. A certain amount of fissile material due to neutrons had to be concentrated very quickly in one place. As a result of fission, new neutrons were formed, the process of decay of atoms grew like an avalanche. A chain reaction occurred with the release of a huge amount of energy. The result was an explosion.
Atomic bomb
Atomic bomb explosion
Scientists faced very important tasks.
First of all, it was necessary to explore deposits of uranium ores, organize their mining and processing. I must say that work on the search for new deposits of uranium ores was forced back in 1940. But in natural uranium the amount of the uranium-235 isotope suitable for a chain reaction is very small. It is only 0.71%. Yes, and the uranium itself in the ore contains only 1%. Therefore, it was necessary to solve the problem of uranium enrichment.
In addition, it was necessary to justify, calculate and build the first physical reactor in the USSR, to create the first industrial nuclear reactor that would produce enough plutonium to produce a nuclear charge. Then it was necessary to isolate plutonium, translate it into a metal form and make a plutonium charge. And this is far from a complete list of what needed to be done.
And all these complex work has been completed. New industrial technologies and manufactures were created. Received pure metallic uranium, graphite and other special materials.
As a result, the first prototype of the Soviet atomic bomb was ready in August 1949. It received the name RDS-1. It meant "Motherland does it herself."
On August 5, 1949, a charge of plutonium was adopted by a commission led by Yu.B. Khariton. The charge arrived at KB-11 with a letter train. On the night of August 10-11, a control collection of the nuclear charge was carried out.
After that, everything was dismantled, inspected, packed and prepared for shipment to the landfill near Semipalatinsk, the construction of which began in 1947 and was completed in July 1949. In just 2 years, a tremendous amount of work was performed at the landfill, and with the highest quality.
So, the USSR created its atomic bomb only 4 years later than the United States, which could not believe that someone else besides them could create such a complex weapon.
Started from scratch, in the complete absence of the necessary knowledge and experience, the most difficult work was successful. From now on, the USSR possessed powerful weapons capable of restraining the use of the atomic bomb by other countries with destructive goals. And who knows, if not for this, the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki could well have repeated in another place on the globe.
The creation of the Soviet atomic bomb (military-strategic part of the "Atomic Project of the USSR") - The history of basic research, technology development and their practical implementation in the Soviet Union, aimed at creating weapons of mass destruction using nuclear energy. These events were largely stimulated by activities in this direction of scientific institutions and the military industry of the West, including in fascist Germany, and later on, in the USA.
In 1930-1941, work was actively carried out in the nuclear field.
Fundamental radiochemical studies were also carried out during this decade, without which it was generally inconceivable that any understanding of these problems, their development and, especially, their implementation would be unthinkable. All-Union conferences of the USSR Academy of Sciences on nuclear physics were held, in which domestic and foreign researchers who worked not only in the field of atomic physics, but also in other related disciplines - geochemistry, physical chemistry, inorganic chemistry, etc. took part.
Science Centers
The work, since the beginning of the 1920s, was intensively developed at the Radium Institute and at the first Physics and Technology Institute (both in Leningrad), at the Ukrainian Physical-Technical Institute, at the Institute of Chemical Physics in Moscow.
Unquestionable authority in this area was considered academician V. G. Khlopin. Also, a significant contribution was made, among many others, by the staff of the Radium Institute: G. A. Gamov, I. V. Kurchatov and L. V. Mysovsky (creators of the first cyclotron in Europe), Fritz Lange (created the first project - 1940), and also the founder of the Institute of Chemical Physics N. N. Semenov. The Soviet project was supervised by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR V.M. Molotov.
In 1941, research on atomic issues was classified. Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, largely led to the fact that the USSR was forced to reduce the volume of nuclear research, including studies on the possibility of a fission chain reaction, while work on this problem in the UK and the USA continued .
The role of the Radium Institute
Meanwhile, the chronology of the research conducted by the staff of the Radium Institute in Leningrad suggests that work in this direction was not completely phased out, which was largely facilitated by the prewar fundamental research, and what affected their subsequent development, and, as will be clear from further - was of paramount importance for the project as a whole; in retrospect, and looking ahead, we can state the following: as early as 1938 the first laboratory of artificial radioactive elements in the USSR was created here (head A. Ye. Polesitsky); in 1939, the works of V. G. Khlopin, L. V. Mysovsky, A. P. Zhdanov, N. A. Perfilov and other researchers on fission of the uranium nucleus by neutrons were published; in 1940, G. N. Flerov and K. A. Petrzhak discovered the phenomena of spontaneous fission of heavy nuclei by the example of uranium; - under the chairmanship of V. G. Khlopin, the Uranium Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences was formed; in 1942, during the evacuation of the institute, A. P. Zhdanov and L. V. Mysovsky discovered a new type of nuclear fission — the complete collapse of the atomic nucleus under the influence of multiply charged cosmic ray particles; in 1943, V. G. Khlopin sent a letter to the GKO and the USSR Academy of Sciences, giving a justification for the mandatory participation of the Radium Institute in the “uranium project”; - The Radium Institute was entrusted with the development of a technology for the separation of e-rhenium (Z \u003d 93) and e-osmium (Z \u003d 94) from uranium irradiated with neutrons; in 1945, using the cyclotron, the first domestic preparation of plutonium in pulsed amounts was obtained; - under the direction of B. S. Dzhelepov, work has begun on beta, gamma-ray spectroscopy of nuclei; - The Radium Institute was entrusted with: testing and testing methods for the separation of plutonium, studying the chemistry of plutonium, developing a technological scheme for the separation of plutonium from irradiated uranium, issuing technological data to the plant; In 1946, the development of the first domestic technology for producing plutonium from irradiated uranium was completed (supervisor V. G. Khlopin); The Radium Institute, together with the designers of the GIPH (Y. I. Zilberman, N.K. Khovansky) issued the technological part of the design assignment for the object “B” (“Blue Book”) containing all the necessary primary data for the design of the radiochemical plant; in 1947, G. M. Tolmachev developed a radiochemical method for determining the utilization of nuclear fuel in nuclear explosions; in 1948, under the leadership of the Radium Institute and on the basis of the acetate precipitation technology developed by him, the first radiochemical plant in the USSR near Chelyabinsk was launched; by 1949, the amount of plutonium needed to test nuclear weapons was accumulated; - the first development of polonium-beryllium sources as a fuse for first-generation nuclear bombs was conducted (leader D. M. Ziv).
Foreign Intelligence Information
Already in September 1941, intelligence began to arrive in the USSR about conducting secret intensive research work in the UK and the USA aimed at developing methods for using atomic energy for military purposes and creating atomic bombs of enormous destructive force. Among the most important documents received back in 1941 by Soviet intelligence are the report of the British “MAUD Committee”. From the materials of this report, obtained through the intelligence channels of the NKVD of the USSR from Donald Macklin, it followed that the creation of an atomic bomb is real, that it can probably be created before the end of the war and, therefore, affect its course.
Reconnaissance information on work on the problem of atomic energy abroad, available in the USSR at the time of the decision to resume work on uranium, was obtained both through the NKVD intelligence channels and through the channels of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU GS) of the Red Army.
In May 1942, the leadership of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff informed the USSR Academy of Sciences about the availability of reports on work abroad on the use of atomic energy for military purposes and requested information on whether this problem currently has a real practical basis. The answer to this request in June 1942 was given by V. G. Khlopin, who noted that over the past year, the scientific literature has almost never published any works related to solving the problem of using atomic energy.
An official letter from the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L.P. Beria to I.V. Stalin with information on works on the use of atomic energy for military purposes abroad, proposals on organizing these works in the USSR and secret acquaintance with materials of the NKVD of prominent Soviet specialists, options which were prepared by the NKVD officers in late 1941 - early 1942 was sent to JV Stalin only in October 1942, after the adoption of the order of the GKO on the resumption of uranium work in the USSR.
Soviet intelligence had detailed information about the creation of the atomic bomb in the United States, coming from experts sympathizing with the USSR, in particular, Klaus Fuchs, Theodore Hall, Georges Koval and David Greenglas. However, a decisive value, as some believe, was addressed to Stalin in early 1943 by a letter from the Soviet physicist G. Flerov, who managed to explain the essence of the problem popularly. On the other hand, there is reason to believe that the work of G. N. Flerov on the letter to Stalin was not completed and it was not sent.
Nuclear project launch
It was adopted only a month and a half after the start of the US Manhattan project. It prescribed:
The order provided for the organization for this purpose at the Academy of Sciences of the USSR of a special laboratory of the atomic nucleus, the creation of laboratory facilities for the separation of uranium isotopes and a set of experimental works. The order obliged the SNK of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to provide the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Kazan with a room of 500 square meters. m to house the laboratory of the atomic nucleus and living space for 10 researchers.
Atomic bomb work
On February 11, 1943, GKO Decree No. 2872ss was adopted on the beginning of practical work to create an atomic bomb. The general leadership was assigned to the Deputy Chairman of the GKO V.M. Molotov, who, in turn, appointed I. Kurchatov as the head of the atomic project (his appointment was signed on March 10). The information received through intelligence channels facilitated and accelerated the work of Soviet scientists.
On April 12, 1943, Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Sciences Academician A. A. Baykov signed a decree establishing the Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The head of the laboratory was appointed Kurchatov.
GKO Decree of April 8, 1944 No. 5582ss obliged the People’s Commissariat of the Chemical Industry (M. G. Pervukhina) to design in 1944 a heavy water production workshop and a uranium hexafluoride production plant (raw materials for uranium isotope separation plants), and Narodniy Commissariat of non-ferrous metallurgy (P.F. Lomako) - to ensure in 1944 the production of 500 kg of uranium metal in a pilot plant, to build a uranium metal production workshop by January 1, 1945, and to set up Laboratory No. 2 in 1944 with tens of tons of high-quality graphite output blocks.
Post-war period
After the occupation of Germany in the United States, a special group was created, the purpose of which was to prevent the USSR from capturing any data on the German nuclear project. She was captured and German experts, not needed by the United States, which already had their own bomb. On April 15, 1945, the American Technical Commission organized the export of raw uranium from Stasfurt, and within 5-6 days, all uranium was removed along with its related documentation; Americans also completely removed equipment from a mine in Saxony, where uranium was mined.
Beria reported this to Stalin, who, however, did not make a fuss; hereinafter, the “lack of interest in uranium” determined the figure “10-15 years,” which analysts told the US president about the estimated deadline for developing the atomic bomb in the USSR. This mine was later rebuilt, and a joint venture, Bismuth, was established, which was run by German specialists.
However, the NKVD still managed to produce several tons of low-enriched uranium at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute.
On July 24, 1945, in Potsdam, US President Truman informed Stalin that the United States "now has weapons of extraordinary destructive power." According to Churchill's memoirs, Stalin smiled, but did not become interested in the details, from which Churchill concluded that he did not understand anything and was not up to date. Some modern scholars believe this was blackmail. That same evening, Stalin instructed Molotov to speak with Kurchatov on speeding up work on the nuclear project.
On August 20, 1945, the State Defense Committee established a special committee with extraordinary powers to lead the atomic project, led by L.P. Beria. An executive body was created under the Special Committee - the First Main Directorate under the SNK of the USSR (PSU). The head of the PSU was appointed People's Commissar of Arms B. L. Vannikov. The CCGT was transferred to numerous enterprises and institutions from other departments, including the scientific and technical intelligence department, the Main Directorate of Industrial Construction Camps of the NKVD (GULPS) and the Main Directorate of Camps of Mining and Metallurgical Enterprises of the NKVD (GULGMP) (with a total of 293 thousand prisoners). The Stalin directive obliged PSU to ensure the creation of atomic bombs, uranium and plutonium, in 1948.
On September 28, 1945, the Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR “On the Additional Involvement of Scientific Institutions, Individual Scientists, and Other Specialists” in Participating in the Use of the Atomic Energy was adopted.
In the annex to the document, a list of the institutions of the atomic project was given (No. 10 was the Physicotechnical Institute of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and its director KD Sinelnikov).
The primary tasks were the organization of industrial production of plutonium-239 and uranium-235. To solve the first problem, it was necessary to create an experimental and then industrial nuclear reactors, and to build a radiochemical and special metallurgical workshops. To solve the second problem, the construction of a plant for the separation of uranium isotopes by the diffusion method was launched.
The solution of these problems was possible as a result of the creation of industrial technologies, the organization of production and production of the necessary large quantities of pure metallic uranium, uranium oxide, uranium hexafluoride, other compounds of uranium, high-purity graphite and a number of other special materials, the creation of a complex of new industrial units and devices. The insufficient volume of uranium ore mining and production of uranium concentrates in the USSR during this period was offset by trophy raw materials and products of uranium enterprises in Eastern Europe, with which the USSR entered into relevant agreements.
In 1945, hundreds of German scientists related to the nuclear issue were brought from Germany to the USSR on a voluntary basis. Most of them (about 300 people) were brought to Sukhumi and secretly placed in the former estates of the Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and the millionaire Smetsky (sanatoriums "Sinop" and "Agudzery"). In the USSR, equipment was exported from the German Institute of Chemistry and Metallurgy, the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute, the Siemens Electrotechnical Laboratories, and the Physical Institute of the German Ministry of Posts. Three of the four German cyclotrons, powerful magnets, electron microscopes, oscilloscopes, high voltage transformers, and high-precision instruments were brought to the USSR. In November 1945, the Office of Special Institutions (9th Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR) was created as part of the NKVD of the USSR to supervise the work on the use of German specialists.
The Sinop Sanatorium was named Object A, which was led by Baron Manfred von Ardenne. The “Agudzers” became the “Object G” ”- it was headed by Gustav Hertz. At facilities “A” and “G” outstanding scientists worked - Nikolaus Riel, Max Volmer, who built the first heavy water production plant in the USSR, Peter Thyssen, Max Steenbek, designer of uranium separation, and Gernot Zippe, holder of the first Western patent for a centrifuge. On the basis of facilities “A” and “G”, the Sukhumi Institute of Physics and Technology was later created.
In 1945, the Government of the USSR adopted the following major decisions:
- on the creation on the basis of the Kirov Plant (Leningrad) two special experimental design bureaus designed to develop equipment that produces 235 uranium enriched by the gas diffusion method;
- about the start of construction in the Middle Urals (near the village of Verkh-Neyvinsky) of a diffusion plant for the production of enriched uranium-235;
- the organization of a laboratory for the creation of heavy water reactors on natural uranium;
- on choosing a site and starting construction in the South Urals of the country's first plutonium-239 production enterprise.
The structure of the enterprise in the South Urals should include:
- uranium-graphite reactor on natural (natural) uranium (plant "A");
- radiochemical production for the separation of plutonium-239 from natural (natural) uranium irradiated in the reactor (plant “B”);
- chemical and metallurgical production for the production of highly pure metallic plutonium (plant "B").
Construction of Chelyabinsk-40
To build the first enterprise in the USSR to produce plutonium for military purposes, a site was selected in the South Urals in the area of \u200b\u200bthe ancient Ural cities Kyshtym and Kasli. Surveys for site selection were carried out in the summer of 1945, in October 1945 the Government Commission found it appropriate to place the first industrial reactor on the southern shore of Lake Kyzyl-Tash, and under the housing estate choose a peninsula on the southern shore of Lake Irtyash.
At the site of the chosen construction site, over time a whole complex of industrial enterprises, buildings and structures were erected, interconnected by a network of roads and railways, a heat and power supply system, industrial water supply and sewage. At different times, the secret city was called differently, but the most famous name is “Sorokovka” or Chelyabinsk-40. Currently, the industrial complex, originally named Combine No. 817, is called the Mayak Production Association, and the city on the shore of Lake Irtyash, in which Mayak workers and their families live, is called Ozersk.
In November 1945, geological surveys began at the selected site, and the first builders began to arrive in early December.
The first construction manager (1946–1947) was J. D. Rappoport, who was subsequently replaced by Major General M. M. Tsarevsky. The chief engineer of construction was V. A. Saprykin, the first director of the future enterprise - P. T. Bystrov (from April 17, 1946), who was replaced by E. P. Slavsky (from July 10, 1947), and then B. G. Muzrukov (from December 1, 1947). I.V. Kurchatov was appointed the supervisor of the plant.
Construction of Arzamas-16
From the end of 1945, a search was begun for a place to place a secret facility, which would later be called KB-11. Vannikov instructed to examine the plant number 550, located in the village of Sarov, and on April 1, 1946, the village was chosen as the location of the first Soviet nuclear center, later known as Arzamas-16. Yu. B. Khariton told me that he personally flew by plane and examined the sites proposed for the placement of a secret facility, and he liked the location of Sarov - a fairly uninhabited area, infrastructure (railroad, production) and not very far from Moscow.
On April 9, 1946, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted important decisions regarding the organization of work on the atomic project of the USSR.
Decree of the USSR Council of Ministers No. 803–325ss “Matters of the First Main Directorate under the Council of Ministers of the USSR” provided for a change in the structure of the CCGT unit and the unification of the Technical and Engineering Councils of the Special Committee into a single Scientific and Technical Council as part of the CCU. B. L. Vannikov was appointed Chairman of the NTS of PSU, I. V. Kurchatov and M. G. Pervukhin were appointed Vice-Chairmen of the NTS. On December 1, 1949, I.V. Kurchatov became the chairman of the NTS PSU.
By Decree of the USSR Council of Ministers No. 805—327ss “Issues of Laboratory No. 2,” sector No. 6 of this Laboratory was transformed into Design Bureau No. 11 at Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences for the development of the design and manufacture of prototypes of jet engines (conventional name for atomic bombs).
The resolution provided for the placement of KB-11 in the area of \u200b\u200bthe village of Sarov on the border of the Gorky region and the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (now the city of Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod region, formerly known as Arzamas-16). P. M. Zernov was appointed the head of KB-11, and Yu. B. Khariton was appointed chief designer. The construction of KB-11 on the basis of plant No. 550 in the village of Sarov was assigned to the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs. To carry out all construction work, a special construction organization was created - Building Management No. 880 of the NKVD of the USSR. Since April 1946, the entire personnel of Plant No. 550 was enlisted by the workers and employees of Building Management No. 880.
Products
Development of the design of atomic bombs
Decree of the USSR Council of Ministers No. 1286-525ss “On the plan for the deployment of KB-11 at Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences” defined the first tasks of KB-11: the creation under the scientific supervision of Laboratory No. 2 (academician I.V. Kurchatov) of atomic bombs, conditionally named in the resolution of "jet engines C", in two versions - RDS-1 and RDS-2.
Tactical and technical tasks for the design of the RDS-1 and RDS-2 should have been developed by July 1, 1946, and the design of their main components - by July 1, 1947. A fully fabricated bomb of the RDS-1 should have been submitted to state tests for an explosion when installed on the ground by January 1, 1948, in an aircraft version - by March 1, 1948, and the RDS-2 bomb - by June 1, 1948 and January 1, 1949, respectively carried out in parallel with the organization in KB-11 of special laboratories and the deployment of the work of these laboratories ry. Such short deadlines and the organization of parallel operations became possible also due to the receipt in the USSR of some intelligence data on American atomic bombs.
Research laboratories and design departments of KB-11 began to expand their activities directly in Arzamas-16 in the spring of 1947. In parallel, the first production workshops of pilot plants No. 1 and No. 2 were created.
Nuclear reactors
The first in the USSR experimental nuclear reactor F-1, the construction of which was carried out in Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences, was successfully launched on December 25, 1946.
On November 6, 1947, USSR Minister of Foreign Affairs V. M. Molotov made a statement regarding the secret of the atomic bomb, saying that "this secret has long ceased to exist." This statement meant that the Soviet Union had already discovered the secret of atomic weapons, and it had these weapons at its disposal. The US scientific community regarded this statement by V.M. Molotov as a bluff, believing that the Russians could take possession of atomic weapons no earlier than 1952.
In less than two years, the building of the first atomic industrial reactor “A” of Plant No. 817 was ready, and work began on the installation of the reactor itself. The physical start-up of reactor “A” took place at 00:30 on June 18, 1948, and on June 19 the reactor was brought to its design capacity.
On December 22, 1948, the first products from the nuclear reactor arrived at the radiochemical plant “B”. At Plant B, plutonium accumulated in the reactor was separated from uranium and radioactive fission products. All radiochemical processes for Plant B were developed at the Radium Institute under the supervision of Academician V. G. Khlopin. A. Z. Rothschild was the general designer and chief engineer of the B plant project, and J. I. Zilberman was the chief technologist. Boris A. Nikitin, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, was the supervisor of the launch of Plant B.
The first batch of finished products (plutonium concentrate, which consisted mainly of plutonium and lanthanum fluorides) in the refining department of Plant B was obtained in February 1949.
Obtaining weapons-grade plutonium
The plutonium concentrate was transferred to the B plant, which was intended to produce high-purity metallic plutonium and products from it.
The main contribution to the development of the technology and design of Plant B was made by: A. A. Bochvar, I. I. Chernyaev, A. S. Zaimovsky, A. N. Volsky, A. D. Gelman, V. D. Nikolsky, N P. Aleksakhin, P. Ya. Belyaev, L. R. Dulin, A. L. Tarakanov and others.
In August 1949, the B plant manufactured parts from high-purity metallic plutonium for the first atomic bomb.
Test
A successful test of the first Soviet atomic bomb was carried out on August 29, 1949 at the constructed training ground in the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakhstan. It was kept secret.
On September 3, 1949, an aircraft from the US Special Meteorological Intelligence Service took air samples in the Kamchatka region, and then American experts discovered isotopes in them that indicated that a nuclear explosion had been carried out in the USSR.
The one who invented the atomic bomb could not even imagine what tragic consequences this miracle invention of the 20th century could lead to. Before this superweapon was experienced by residents of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a very long journey was made.
A start
In April 1903, his friends gathered in the Paris Garden of France by Paul Langevin. The reason was the defense of the dissertation of the young and talented scientist Maria Curie. Among the distinguished guests was the famous English physicist Sir Ernest Rutherford. In the midst of the fun, the lights were out. announced to everyone that there will be a surprise now. With a solemn look, Pierre Curie introduced a small tube of radium salts, which shone with a green light, causing unusual delight among those present. In the future, guests heatedly discussed the future of this phenomenon. Everyone agreed that thanks to radiation the acute problem of lack of energy will be solved. It inspired everyone to new research and future prospects. If they were then told that laboratory work with radioactive elements would initiate the terrible weapons of the 20th century, it is not known what their reaction would be. It was then that the story of the atomic bomb began, which claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians.
Anticipation game
On December 17, 1938, German scientist Otto Gann obtained irrefutable evidence of the decay of uranium into smaller elementary particles. In fact, he managed to split the atom. In the scientific world, this was regarded as a new milestone in the history of mankind. Otto Gunn did not share the political views of the Third Reich. Therefore, in the same year, 1938, the scientist was forced to move to Stockholm, where, together with Friedrich Strassmann, he continued his scientific research. Fearing that fascist Germany would be the first to receive terrible weapons, he writes a warning letter about this. The news of a possible lead greatly alarmed the US government. The Americans began to act quickly and decisively.
Who created the atomic bomb? American project
Even before the group, many of whom were refugees from the Nazi regime in Europe, the task was to develop nuclear weapons. Initial studies, it is worth noting, were conducted in Nazi Germany. In 1940, the United States government began funding its own nuclear weapons development program. An incredible amount of two and a half billion dollars was allocated for the project. Outstanding physicists of the 20th century were invited to implement this secret project, among which there were more than ten Nobel laureates. In total, about 130 thousand employees were involved, among whom were not only military, but also civilians. The development team was headed by Colonel Leslie Richard Groves, Robert Oppenheimer became the supervisor of studies. It is he - the man who invented the atomic bomb. In the Manhattan area, a special secret engineering building was built, which is known to us under the code name "Manhattan Project." Over the next few years, scientists from a secret project worked on the problem of nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium.
Non-peaceful atom of Igor Kurchatov
Today, every student will be able to answer the question of who invented the atomic bomb in the Soviet Union. And then, in the beginning of the 30s of the last century, nobody knew this.
In 1932, academician Igor V. Kurchatov was one of the first in the world to begin studying the atomic nucleus. Gathering like-minded people around him, Igor Vasilievich in 1937 creates the first cyclotron in Europe. In the same year, he and his like-minded people created the first artificial nuclei.
In 1939, I.V. Kurchatov began the study of a new direction - nuclear physics. After several laboratory successes in the study of this phenomenon, the scientist has at his disposal a secret research center, which was called "Laboratory No. 2". Today, this secret facility is called Arzamas-16.
The target area of \u200b\u200bthis center was serious research and development of nuclear weapons. Now it becomes obvious who created the atomic bomb in the Soviet Union. His team then had only ten people.
Atomic bomb be
By the end of 1945, Igor Vasilievich Kurchatov was able to assemble a serious team of scientists of more than one hundred people. The best minds of various scientific specializations came to the laboratory from all over the country to create atomic weapons. After the Americans dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Soviet scientists realized that this could be done with the Soviet Union. Laboratory No. 2 receives from the country's leadership a sharp increase in funding and a large influx of qualified personnel. Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria is appointed responsible for such an important project. The huge works of Soviet scientists have borne fruit.
Semipalatinsk training ground
The atomic bomb in the USSR was first tested at a training ground in Semipalatinsk (Kazakhstan). On August 29, 1949, a nuclear device with a capacity of 22 kilotons shook the Kazakh land. The Nobel laureate, physicist Otto Hanz, said: “This is good news. If Russia has nuclear weapons, then there will be no war. ” It was this atomic bomb in the USSR, encrypted as product No. 501, or RDS-1, that eliminated the US monopoly on nuclear weapons.
Atomic bomb. Year 1945
In the early morning hours of July 16, the Manhattan Project conducted its first successful test of an atomic device - a plutonium bomb - at the US Alamogordo test site in New Mexico.
The money invested in the project was not wasted. The first in the history of mankind was produced at 5.30 a.m.
"We have done the work of the devil," - later said - the one who invented the atomic bomb in the United States, later called the "father of the atomic bomb."
Japan does not capitulate
By the time of the final and successful testing of the atomic bomb, Soviet troops and allies had finally defeated Nazi Germany. However, there was only one state that promised to fight to the end for supremacy in the Pacific Ocean. From mid-April to mid-July 1945, the Japanese army repeatedly carried out air strikes on allied forces, thereby inflicting heavy losses on the US Army. At the end of July 1945, the militaristic government of Japan rejected the Allied demand for surrender under the Potsdam Declaration. In it, in particular, it was said that in case of disobedience, the Japanese army is waiting for quick and complete destruction.
President agrees
The American government kept its word and launched a targeted bombardment of Japanese military positions. Air strikes did not bring the desired result, and US President Harry Truman decides on the invasion of US troops in Japan. However, the military command discourages its president from such a decision, citing the fact that the American invasion will entail a large number of victims.
At the suggestion of Henry Lewis Stimson and Dwight David Eisenhower, it was decided to use a more effective way to end the war. James Francis Byrnes, a big supporter of the atomic bomb, said that the bombing of Japanese territories would finally end the war and put the United States in a dominant position, which would have a positive effect on the course of events in the post-war world. Thus, US President Harry Truman was convinced that this is the only right option.
Atomic bomb. Hiroshima
The small Japanese city of Hiroshima, with a population of just over 350 thousand people, located five hundred miles from the capital of Japan, Tokyo, was chosen as the first target. After arriving at the US naval base on Tinian Island, the modified Enola Gay B-29 bomber, an atomic bomb was installed on board the aircraft. Hiroshima was supposed to experience the effect of 9 thousand pounds of uranium-235.
This hitherto unprecedented weapon was intended for civilians in a small Japanese town. The commander of the bomber was Colonel Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr. The US atomic bomb was cynically called "Baby." On the morning of August 6, 1945, at about 8 hours and 15 minutes, the American "Kid" was dropped on Japanese Hiroshima. About 15 thousand tons of TNT destroyed all life within a radius of five square miles. One hundred forty thousand inhabitants of the city died in a matter of seconds. The surviving Japanese were dying a painful death from radiation sickness.
They were destroyed by the American atomic “Baby”. However, the devastation of Hiroshima did not cause the immediate surrender of Japan, as everyone expected. Then it was decided about another bombing of Japanese territory.
Nagasaki. The sky is on fire
The American “Fat Man” atomic bomb was installed on board the B-29 aircraft on August 9, 1945, all in the same place, at the US naval base in Tinian. This time, Major Charles Sweeney was the commander of the aircraft. The initial strategic target was the city of Kokura.
However, weather conditions did not allow to carry out the plan, a lot of cloudiness prevented. Charles Sweeney entered the second round. At 11 hours 02 minutes the American atomic "Fat Man" swallowed Nagasaki. It was a more powerful destructive air strike, which in its strength was several times higher than the bombing in Hiroshima. Nagasaki tested an atomic weapon weighing about 10 thousand pounds and 22 kilotons of TNT.
The geographical location of the Japanese city has reduced the expected effect. The thing is that the city is located in a narrow valley between the mountains. Therefore, the destruction of 2.6 square miles did not reveal the full potential of American weapons. The atomic bomb test in Nagasaki is considered a failed Manhattan Project.
Japan surrendered
At noon on August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of his country in a radio message to the inhabitants of Japan. This news quickly spread around the world. In the United States of America, celebrations began on the occasion of the victory over Japan. The people rejoiced.
On September 2, 1945, an official agreement to end the war was signed aboard the American Missouri battleship, anchored in Tokyo Bay. Thus ended the most brutal and bloody war in the history of mankind.
For six long years, the world community has come to this significant date - from September 1, 1939, when the first shots of Nazi Germany in Poland sounded.
Peaceful atom
In total, 124 nuclear explosions were carried out in the Soviet Union. It is characteristic that they were all implemented for the benefit of the national economy. Only three of them were accidents resulting in the leakage of radioactive elements. Peaceful atom programs were implemented in only two countries — the United States and the Soviet Union. Nuclear peaceful energy also knows an example of a global catastrophe when a reactor explosion occurred at the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
At the Semipalatinsk test site (Kazakhstan), the first Soviet charge for an atomic bomb was successfully tested.
This event was preceded by a long and difficult work of physicists. The beginning of work on nuclear fission in the USSR can be considered the 1920s. Since the 1930s, nuclear physics has become one of the main directions of Russian physical science, and in October 1940, for the first time in the USSR, a group of Soviet scientists came forward with a proposal to use atomic energy for weapons purposes, submitting a request to the Red Army's Invention Department on the Use of Uranium as explosive and toxic substances. "
The war that began in June 1941 and the evacuation of scientific institutes dealing with the problems of nuclear physics interrupted the work on creating atomic weapons in the country. But already in the fall of 1941, intelligence information began to be received in the USSR about secret intensive research work in the UK and the USA aimed at developing methods for using atomic energy for military purposes and creating explosive substances of enormous destructive power.
This information forced, despite the war, to resume work on the uranium subject in the USSR. On September 28, 1942, a secret resolution of the State Defense Committee No. 2352ss “On the Organization of Work on Uranium” was signed, according to which research on the use of atomic energy was resumed.
In February 1943, Igor Kurchatov was appointed scientific supervisor of the work on the atomic problem. In Moscow, headed by Kurchatov, Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences was created (now the Kurchatov Institute National Research Center), which began to study atomic energy.
Initially, the general management of the atomic problem was carried out by Vyacheslav Molotov, deputy chairman of the USSR State Defense Committee (GKO). But on August 20, 1945 (a few days after the United States conducted the atomic bombing of Japanese cities), the GKO decided to create a Special Committee, headed by Lavrenty Beria. He became the curator of the Soviet atomic project.
Then, for the direct management of research, design, engineering organizations and industrial enterprises involved in the Soviet atomic project, the First Main Directorate was created under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (later the USSR Ministry of Medium Machine-Building, now the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom). Boris Vannikov, the former People's Commissar of Ammunition, became the head of PSU.
In April 1946, Laboratory No. 2 created the design bureau KB-11 (now the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - VNIIEF) - one of the most secretive enterprises for the development of domestic nuclear weapons, whose chief designer was appointed Julius Khariton. The base for the deployment of KB-11 was chosen plant N 550 of the People’s Commissariat of Ammunition, which produced shells of artillery shells.
The top-secret facility was located 75 kilometers from the city of Arzamas (Gorky region, now Nizhny Novgorod region) on the territory of the former Sarov Monastery.
KB-11 was tasked with creating an atomic bomb in two versions. In the first of them, plutonium should be the working substance, in the second - uranium-235. In mid-1948, work on the uranium variant was discontinued due to its relatively low efficiency compared to the cost of nuclear materials.
The first domestic atomic bomb was officially designated RDS-1. It is deciphered in different ways: “Russia does it herself”, “the Motherland gives Stalin”, etc. But in the official decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of June 21, 1946, it was encrypted as “Special Jet Engine (“ C ”).
The creation of the first Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1 was carried out taking into account the available materials according to the plutonium bomb scheme of the United States, tested in 1945. These materials were provided by Soviet foreign intelligence. An important source of information was Klaus Fuchs, a German physicist who participated in work on nuclear programs in the United States and Great Britain.
Reconnaissance materials on the American plutonium charge for the atomic bomb reduced the time needed to create the first Soviet charge, although many technical solutions of the American prototype were not the best. Even at the initial stages, Soviet specialists could offer the best solutions to both the charge as a whole and its individual units. Therefore, the first charge tested by the USSR for an atomic bomb was more primitive and less effective than the original version of the charge proposed by Soviet scientists in early 1949. But in order to guarantee and in a short time show that the USSR also has atomic weapons, it was decided at the first test to use a charge created according to the American scheme.
The charge for the RDS-1 atomic bomb was a multilayer construction in which the active substance, plutonium, was transformed to the supercritical state due to its compression by means of a converging spherical detonation wave in the explosive.
RDS-1 was an aircraft atomic bomb weighing 4.7 tons, a diameter of 1.5 meters and a length of 3.3 meters. It was developed in relation to the Tu-4 aircraft, whose bomb bay allowed the placement of a “product” with a diameter of not more than 1.5 meters. Plutonium was used as fissile material in the bomb.
To produce an atomic charge of a bomb, a plant was built in the city of Chelyabinsk-40 in the Southern Urals under the conditional number 817 (now FSUE Mayak Production Association). The plant consisted of the first Soviet industrial reactor for producing plutonium, a radiochemical plant for separating plutonium from irradiated uranium reactor, and a plant for the production of plutonium metal.
The plant’s reactor 817 was brought to its design capacity in June 1948, and a year later the company received the necessary amount of plutonium to produce the first charge for an atomic bomb.
The site for the charge test site was chosen in the Irtysh steppe, about 170 kilometers west of Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. A plain with a diameter of about 20 kilometers was allotted to the landfill, surrounded by low mountains from the south, west and north. In the east of this space were small hills.
The construction of the training ground, called training ground No. 2 of the Ministry of Armed Forces of the USSR (later the Ministry of Defense of the USSR), began in 1947, and by July 1949 it was basically completed.
An experimental site with a diameter of 10 kilometers, divided into sectors, was prepared for testing at the test site. It was equipped with special facilities providing testing, observation and registration of physical research. In the center of the experimental field, a metal lattice tower 37.5 meters high, designed to set the RDS-1 charge, was mounted. An underground building was constructed at a distance of one kilometer from the center for equipment recording light, neutron and gamma-ray fluxes of a nuclear explosion. To study the effects of a nuclear explosion on a test field, sections of subway tunnels, fragments of runways of airfields were built, samples of aircraft, tanks, artillery rocket launchers, and ship superstructures of various types were placed. To ensure the work of the physical sector, 44 facilities were built at the test site and a cable network with a length of 560 kilometers was laid.
In June-July 1949, two groups of KB-11 workers with auxiliary equipment and household equipment were sent to the training ground, and on July 24 a group of specialists arrived there who was to take a direct part in preparing the atomic bomb for testing.
On August 5, 1949, the government commission for the RDS-1 test issued a conclusion on the complete readiness of the landfill.
On August 21, a plutonium charge and four neutron fuses were delivered by special train to the training ground, one of which was supposed to be used to detonate a weapon.
On August 24, 1949, Kurchatov arrived at the training ground. By August 26, all preparatory work at the training ground was completed. The head of the experiment, Kurchatov, ordered the RDS-1 test to be carried out on August 29 at eight in the morning local time and to carry out preparatory operations starting from eight in the morning on August 27.
On the morning of August 27 near the central tower, the assembly of the military product began. In the afternoon of August 28, the demolition team carried out the last full inspection of the tower, prepared for the demolition of the automation and checked the subversive cable line.
At four o'clock in the afternoon on August 28, a plutonium charge and neutron fuses were delivered to the workshop near the tower. The final charge assembly was completed by three in the morning on August 29. At four o’clock in the morning, the installers rolled out the product from the assembly shop along the rail track and installed it in the crates of the tower’s freight elevator, and then raised the charge to the top of the tower. By six o’clock, the equipment was completed with fuses and its connection to a subversive circuit. Then the evacuation of all people from the test field began.
Due to the worsening weather, Kurchatov decided to postpone the explosion from 8:00 to 7:00.
At 6.35, the operators turned on the power of the automation system. 12 minutes before the explosion, the automatic machine of the field was turned on. 20 seconds before the explosion, the operator turned on the main connector (switch) connecting the product with the control automation system. From that moment, all operations were performed by an automatic device. Six seconds before the explosion, the main mechanism of the machine turned on the power to the product and part of the field devices, and in one second turned on all the other devices, issued an explosion signal.
At exactly seven o'clock on August 29, 1949, the whole area was lit up with a blinding light, which signaled that the USSR had successfully completed the development and testing of its first charge for an atomic bomb.
The charge power was 22 kilotons of TNT.
20 minutes after the explosion, two tanks equipped with lead protection were sent to the center of the field for radiation reconnaissance and inspection of the center of the field. Intelligence found that all structures in the center of the field were demolished. A funnel gaped at the site of the tower, the soil in the center of the field melted, and a continuous crust of slag formed. Civil buildings and industrial facilities were completely or partially destroyed.
The equipment used in the experiment made it possible to conduct optical observations and measurements of the heat flux, parameters of the shock wave, characteristics of neutron and gamma radiation, determine the level of radioactive contamination of the area in the region of the explosion and along the trail of the explosion cloud, and study the effect of the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion on biological objects.
For the successful development and testing of the charge for an atomic bomb by several closed decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 29, 1949, orders and medals of the USSR were awarded to a large group of leading researchers, designers, and technologists; many were awarded the title of laureates of the Stalin Prize, and more than 30 people received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.
As a result of the successful test of RDS-1, the USSR eliminated the American monopoly on the possession of atomic weapons, becoming the second nuclear power in the world.
