The creation of the Soviet atomic bomb(military part of the atomic project of the USSR) - fundamental research, development of technologies and their practical implementation in the USSR, aimed at creating weapons of mass destruction using nuclear energy. The events were to a large extent stimulated by the activities in this direction of scientific institutions and the military industry of other countries, primarily Nazi Germany and the United States [ ]. In 1945, on August 6 and 9, American planes dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Almost half of the civilians died immediately in the explosions, others were seriously ill and continue to die to this day.
Collegiate YouTube
-
1 / 5
In 1930-1941, work was actively carried out in the nuclear field.
In this decade, fundamental radiochemical research was carried out, without which a complete understanding of these problems, their development, and, even more so, implementation, is inconceivable.
Work in 1941-1943
Foreign intelligence information
Already in September 1941, the USSR began to receive intelligence information about the conduct of secret intensive research work in Great Britain and the United States aimed at developing methods of using atomic energy for military purposes and creating atomic bombs of enormous destructive power. One of the most important documents obtained back in 1941 by Soviet intelligence is the report of the British MAUD Committee. From the materials of this report, received through the foreign intelligence channels of the NKVD of the USSR from Donald McLean, it followed that the creation of an atomic bomb is real, that it could probably be created even before the end of the war and, therefore, could affect its course.
Intelligence information about work on the problem of atomic energy abroad, which was available in the USSR at the time of the decision to resume work on uranium, was received both through the intelligence channels of the NKVD and through the channels of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU) of the Red Army.
In May 1942, the GRU leadership informed the USSR Academy of Sciences about the presence of reports of work abroad on the problem of the use of atomic energy for military purposes and asked to be informed if 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 in the scientific literature, almost no papers have been published related to solving the problem of using atomic energy.
An official letter from the head of the NKVD L.P. Beria addressed to I.V. Stalin with information about the work on the use of atomic energy for military purposes abroad, proposals for organizing this work in the USSR and secret familiarization with the materials of the NKVD by prominent Soviet specialists, versions of which were prepared by the NKVD at the end of 1941 - early 1942, it was sent to I.V. Stalin only in October 1942, after the adoption of the order of the State Defense Committee on the resumption of work on uranium in the USSR.
Soviet intelligence had detailed information about the work on the creation of the atomic bomb in the United States, coming from specialists who understood the danger of a nuclear monopoly or sympathized with the USSR, in particular, Klaus Fuchs, Theodor Hall, Georges Koval and David Greenglas. However, decisive, as some believe, was a letter from the Soviet physicist G. Flerov, addressed to Stalin in early 1943, who was able to explain the essence of the problem in a popular way. On the other hand, there is reason to believe that G. N. Flerov's work on the letter to Stalin was not completed and it was not sent.
The hunt for data from America's uranium project began on the initiative of Leonid Kvasnikov, head of the scientific and technical intelligence department of the NKVD, back in 1942, but fully developed only after the arrival of the famous pair of Soviet intelligence officers in Washington: Vasily Zarubin and his wife Elizabeth. It was with them that the resident of the NKVD in San Francisco, Grigory Kheifits, interacted, reporting that America's most prominent physicist Robert Oppenheimer and many of his colleagues had left California for an unknown place where they would be engaged in the creation of some kind of superweapon.
Lieutenant Colonel Semyon Semyonov (alias "Twain"), who had been working in the United States since 1938 and who had assembled a large and active group of agents, was entrusted to double-check the data of "Charon" (this was the code name of Kheifits). It was "Twain" who confirmed the reality of the work on the atomic bomb, named the code of the Manhattan project and the location of its main scientific center - the former colony for juvenile delinquents Los Alamos in the state of New Mexico. Semenov also revealed the names of some scientists who worked there, who at one time were invited to the USSR to participate in large Stalinist construction projects and who, having returned to the United States, did not lose ties with extreme leftist organizations.
Thus, Soviet agents were introduced into the scientific and design centers of America, where nuclear weapons were created. However, in the midst of the establishment of undercover actions, Liza and Vasily Zarubins were urgently recalled to Moscow. They were lost in conjectures, because not a single failure happened. It turned out that the Center received a denunciation from the Mironov station officer, who accused the Zarubins of treason. And for almost six months, Moscow counterintelligence checked these charges. They were not confirmed, however, the Zarubins were no longer allowed abroad.
In the meantime, the work of the implemented agents had already brought the first results - reports began to arrive, and they had to be immediately sent to Moscow. This work was entrusted to a group of special couriers. The most prompt and unafraid were the Coen spouses, Maurice and Lona. After Maurice was drafted into the American army, Lona began to independently deliver information materials from New Mexico to New York. To do this, she went to the small town of Albuquerque, where, for the sake of visibility, she attended a tuberculosis dispensary. There she met with agents under the nickname "Mlad" and "Ernst".
However, the NKVD still managed to extract several tons of low-enriched uranium c.
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, the construction of 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 turned out to be possible as a result of the creation of industrial technologies, the organization of production and the development of the necessary large quantities of pure metallic uranium, uranium oxide, uranium hexafluoride, other uranium compounds, high-purity graphite and a number of other special materials, the creation of a complex of new industrial units and devices. Insufficient volume of uranium ore mining and production of uranium concentrates in the USSR (the first plant for the production of uranium concentrate - "Combine No. 6 of the NKVD of the USSR" in Tajikistan was founded in 1945) during this period was compensated by trophy raw materials and products of uranium enterprises in Eastern Europe, with whom the USSR has concluded appropriate agreements.
In 1945, the Government of the USSR made the following important decisions:
- on the creation of two special experimental design bureaus on the basis of the Kirovsky plant (Leningrad), intended for the development of equipment for the production of 235-enriched uranium by the gas diffusion method;
- on the beginning of construction in the Middle Urals (near the village of Verkh-Neyvinsky) of a diffusion plant for the production of enriched uranium-235;
- on the organization of a laboratory for work on the creation of heavy water reactors on natural uranium;
- on the selection of the site and the start of construction in the South Urals of the country's first enterprise for the production of plutonium-239.
The structure of the enterprise in the South Urals should have included:
- uranium-graphite reactor on natural (natural) uranium (plant "A");
- radiochemical production for the separation of plutonium-239 from natural (natural) uranium irradiated in a reactor (plant B);
- chemical and metallurgical production for the production of highly pure metallic plutonium (plant "B").
Participation of German specialists in a nuclear project
In 1945, hundreds of German scientists related to the nuclear problem were brought from Germany to the USSR. Most of them (about 300 people) were brought to Sukhumi and secretly accommodated in the former estates of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and millionaire Smetsky (sanatoriums "Sinop" and "Agudzera"). In the USSR, equipment was exported from the German Institute of Chemistry and Metallurgy, the Kaiser Wilhelm Physics Institute, Siemens electrical laboratories, and the Physics Institute of the German Ministry of Posts. Three of the four German cyclotrons, powerful magnets, electron microscopes, oscilloscopes, high-voltage transformers, ultra-precise instruments were brought to the USSR. In November 1945, as part of the NKVD of the USSR, the Office of Special Institutes (9th Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR) was created to manage the work on the use of German specialists.
The Sinop sanatorium was named “Object A” - it was led by Baron Manfred von Ardenne. "Agudzers" became "Object" G "" - it was headed by Gustav Hertz. Prominent scientists worked at objects "A" and "D" - Nikolaus Riehl, Max Volmer, who built the first heavy water production plant in the USSR, Peter Thyssen, designer of nickel filters for gaseous diffusion separation of uranium isotopes, Max Steenbeck and Gernot Zippe, who worked on centrifugal separation method and subsequently obtained patents for gas centrifuges in the west. On the basis of objects "A" and "G" (SIPT) was later created.
Some leading German specialists were awarded USSR government awards for this work, including the Stalin Prize.
In the period 1954-1959, German specialists at various times moved to the GDR (Gernot Zippe - to Austria).
Construction of a gas diffusion plant in Novouralsk
In 1946, at the production base of plant No. 261 of the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry in Novouralsk, the construction of a gaseous diffusion plant, called Combine No. 813 (plant D-1), was begun and intended for the production of highly enriched uranium. The plant produced its first products in 1949.
Construction of a uranium hexafluoride production facility in Kirovo-Chepetsk
In the place of the chosen construction site, over time, a whole complex of industrial enterprises, buildings and structures was erected, interconnected by a network of roads and railways, a heat power supply system, industrial water supply and sewerage. At different times the secret city was called differently, but the most famous name is Chelyabinsk-40 or "Sorokovka". At present, the industrial complex, which was originally called Combine No. 817, is called the Mayak Production Association, and the city on the shore of Lake Irtyash, where the Mayak workers and their family members live, is called Ozersk.
In November 1945, geological surveys began at the selected site, and from the beginning of December the first builders began to arrive.
The first head of construction (1946-1947) was Ya.D. Rappoport, later he was replaced by Major General M.M. Tsarevsky. The chief construction engineer was V.A. Saprykin, the first director of the future enterprise was P.T. Bystrov (from April 17, 1946), who was replaced by E.P. Muzrukov (from December 1, 1947). IV Kurchatov was appointed the scientific director of the plant.
Construction of Arzamas-16
Products and services
Development of the design of atomic bombs
Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 1286-525ss "On the plan for the deployment of KB-11 at Laboratory No. 2 of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR" the first tasks of KB-11 were determined: the creation under the scientific supervision of Laboratory No. 2 (Academician I. V. Kurchatov) of atomic bombs, conventionally named in the decree "jet engines C", in two versions: RDS-1 - implosive type with plutonium and atomic bomb RDS-2 cannon type with uranium-235.
Tactical and technical tasks for the design of the RDS-1 and RDS-2 were to be developed by July 1, 1946, and the designs of their main units - by July 1, 1947. The fully manufactured RDS-1 bomb was to be submitted for state tests. for an explosion when installed on the ground by January 1, 1948, in an aircraft version - by March 1, 1948, and an RDS-2 bomb by June 1, 1948 and by January 1, 1949, respectively. carried out in parallel with the organization of special laboratories in KB-11 and the expansion of the work of these laboratories. Such a tight deadline and the organization of parallel work became possible also thanks to the receipt of some intelligence data on American atomic bombs in the USSR.
Research laboratories and design departments of KB-11 began to develop their activities directly in
The fathers of the atomic bomb are usually called the American Robert Oppenheimer and the Soviet scientist Igor Kurchatov. But given that work on the deadly was carried out in parallel in four countries and, in addition to scientists from these countries, immigrants from Italy, Hungary, Denmark, etc., participated in them, the resulting bomb can justly be called the brainchild of different peoples.
The Germans were the first to get down to business. In December 1938, their physicists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann carried out the first artificial fission of the uranium nucleus in the world. In April 1939, the German military leadership received a letter from the professors of the University of Hamburg P. Harteck and W. Groth, which indicated the fundamental possibility of creating a new type of highly effective explosive. Scientists wrote: "The country that will be the first to practically master the achievements of nuclear physics will acquire absolute superiority over others." And now, in the Reich Ministry of Science and Education, a meeting is being held on the topic "On a self-propagating (that is, chain) nuclear reaction." Among the participants is Professor E. Schumann, head of the research department of the Armaments Directorate of the Third Reich. Without delay, we went from words to deeds. Already in June 1939, construction began on the first German reactor facility at the Kummersdorf test site near Berlin. A law was passed banning the export of uranium outside Germany, and a large amount of uranium ore was urgently purchased in the Belgian Congo.Germany starts and ... loses
On September 26, 1939, when the war was already raging in Europe, it was decided to classify all work related to the uranium problem and the implementation of the program called the "Uranium Project". The scientists involved in the project were initially very optimistic: they considered it possible to create nuclear weapons within a year. They were wrong, as life has shown.
22 organizations were involved in the project, including such well-known scientific centers as the Physics Institute of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the University of Hamburg, the Physics Institute of the Higher Technical School in Berlin, the Physicochemical Institute of the University of Leipzig and many others. The project was personally supervised by the Reich Minister of Armaments Albert Speer. The IG Farbenindustri concern was entrusted with the production of uranium hexafluoride, from which it is possible to extract the isotope of uranium-235, capable of maintaining a chain reaction. The same company was also entrusted with the construction of an isotope separation facility. Such eminent scientists as Heisenberg, Weizsacker, von Ardenne, Riehl, Pose, Nobel laureate Gustav Hertz and others directly participated in the work.
Over the course of two years, Heisenberg's group carried out the research necessary to create an atomic reactor using uranium and heavy water. It was confirmed that only one of the isotopes could be explosive, namely uranium-235, which is contained in very low concentrations in common uranium ore. The first problem was how to isolate it from there. The starting point of the bomb program was an atomic reactor, which - as a reaction moderator - required graphite or heavy water. German physicists chose water, thus creating a serious problem for themselves. After the occupation of Norway, the only heavy water plant in the world at that time passed into the hands of the Nazis. But there the stock of the product necessary for physicists by the beginning of the war was only tens of kilograms, and they did not go to the Germans - the French took away valuable products literally from under the noses of the Nazis. And in February 1943, English commandos abandoned in Norway with the help of local resistance fighters put the plant out of action. Germany's nuclear program is under threat. The misadventures of the Germans did not end there: an experimental nuclear reactor exploded in Leipzig. The uranium project was supported by Hitler only as long as there was hope of obtaining super-powerful weapons before the end of the war unleashed by him. Heisenberg was invited by Speer and asked bluntly: "When can we expect the creation of a bomb capable of being suspended from a bomber?" The scientist was honest: "I think it will take several years of hard work, in any case the bomb will not be able to influence the outcome of the current war." The German leadership rationally considered that there was no point in speeding up events. Let the scientists work quietly - you see, they will have time for the next war. As a result, Hitler decided to concentrate scientific, industrial and financial resources only on projects that give the earliest return in the creation of new types of weapons. State funding for the uranium project was curtailed. Nevertheless, the work of scientists continued.
In 1944, Heisenberg received cast uranium plates for a large reactor plant, for which a special bunker was already being built in Berlin. The last experiment to achieve a chain reaction was scheduled for January 1945, but on January 31, all equipment was hastily dismantled and sent from Berlin to the village of Haigerloch near the Swiss border, where it was deployed only at the end of February. The reactor contained 664 cubes of uranium with a total weight of 1525 kg, surrounded by a graphite moderator-reflector of neutrons weighing 10 tons. In March 1945, an additional 1.5 tons of heavy water was poured into the core. On March 23, Berlin was reported that the reactor was working. But the joy was premature - the reactor did not reach a critical point, the chain reaction did not start. After recalculations, it turned out that the amount of uranium must be increased by at least 750 kg, proportionally increasing the mass of heavy water. But there were no stocks of either one or the other. The end of the Third Reich was approaching inexorably. On April 23, American troops entered Haigerloch. The reactor was dismantled and taken to the United States.
Meanwhile overseas
In parallel with the Germans (only with a slight lag), the development of atomic weapons began in England and in the United States. They began with a letter sent in September 1939 by Albert Einstein to US President Franklin Roosevelt. The initiators of the letter and the authors of most of the text were emigrant physicists from Hungary Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner and Edward Teller. The letter drew the president's attention to the fact that Nazi Germany was conducting active research, as a result of which it could soon acquire an atomic bomb.
In the USSR, the first information about the work carried out by both the allies and the enemy was reported to Stalin by intelligence back in 1943. A decision was immediately made to deploy similar work in the Union. This is how the Soviet atomic project began. The assignments were received not only by scientists, but also by intelligence officers, for whom the extraction of nuclear secrets has become a super task.
The most valuable information about the work on the atomic bomb in the United States, obtained by intelligence, greatly helped the advancement of the Soviet nuclear project. Scientists who participated in it managed to avoid dead-end search paths, thereby significantly accelerating the achievement of the final goal.
Experience of recent enemies and allies
Naturally, the Soviet leadership could not remain indifferent to German atomic developments. At the end of the war, a group of Soviet physicists was sent to Germany, among whom were the future academicians Artsimovich, Kikoin, Khariton, Shchelkin. All were disguised as colonels of the Red Army. The operation was led by the First Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Ivan Serov, which opened any doors. In addition to the necessary German scientists, the "colonels" tracked down tons of metallic uranium, which, according to Kurchatov, reduced the work on the Soviet bomb by at least a year. The Americans also took out a lot of uranium from Germany, taking also the specialists who worked on the project. And in the USSR, in addition to physicists and chemists, they sent mechanics, electrical engineers, glass blowers. Some were found in prisoner-of-war camps. For example, Max Steinbeck, the future Soviet academician and vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR, was taken away when, at the whim of the head of the camp, he was making a sundial. In total, at least 1,000 German specialists worked on the atomic project in the USSR. The von Ardenne laboratory with a uranium centrifuge, equipment of the Kaiser Institute of Physics, documentation, and reagents were completely removed from Berlin. Within the framework of the atomic project, laboratories "A", "B", "C" and "D" were created, the scientific leaders of which were scientists who arrived from Germany.
Laboratory "A" was headed by Baron Manfred von Ardenne, a talented physicist who developed a method for gaseous diffusion purification and separation of uranium isotopes in a centrifuge. At first, his laboratory was located on the October field in Moscow. Five or six Soviet engineers were assigned to each German specialist. Later, the laboratory moved to Sukhumi, and over time, the famous Kurchatov Institute grew up on the Oktyabrsky Pole. In Sukhumi, on the basis of the von Ardenne laboratory, the Sukhumi Institute of Physics and Technology was formed. In 1947, Ardenne was awarded the Stalin Prize for the creation of a centrifuge for the purification of uranium isotopes on an industrial scale. Six years later, Ardenne became twice Stalin's laureate. He lived with his wife in a comfortable mansion, his wife played music on a piano brought from Germany. Other German specialists were not offended either: they came with their families, brought furniture, books, paintings with them, were provided with good salaries and food. Were they prisoners? Academician A.P. Aleksandrov, himself an active participant in the atomic project, remarked: "Of course, the German specialists were prisoners, but we ourselves were also prisoners."
Nikolaus Riehl, a native of St. Petersburg, who moved to Germany in the 1920s, became the head of Laboratory B, which conducted research in the field of radiation chemistry and biology in the Urals (now the city of Snezhinsk). Here his old acquaintance from Germany, the outstanding Russian geneticist Timofeev-Ressovsky ("Bison" based on the novel by D. Granin), worked with Riel.
Recognized in the USSR as a researcher and talented organizer, able to find effective solutions to complex problems, Dr. Riehl became one of the key figures in the Soviet atomic project. After successfully testing the Soviet bomb, he became a Hero of Socialist Labor and a Stalin Prize laureate.
Laboratory B, organized in Obninsk, was headed by Professor Rudolf Pose, one of the pioneers in the field of nuclear research. Under his leadership, fast neutron reactors were created, the first nuclear power plant in the Union, the design of reactors for submarines began. The object in Obninsk became the basis for the organization of the A.I. Leipunsky. Pose worked until 1957 in Sukhumi, then at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna.
Gustav Hertz, the nephew of the famous physicist of the 19th century, himself a famous scientist, became the head of laboratory "G", located in the Sukhumi sanatorium "Agudzera". He was recognized for a series of experiments that confirmed Niels Bohr's theory of the atom and quantum mechanics. The results of his very successful activities in Sukhumi were later used in an industrial plant built in Novouralsk, where in 1949 the filling for the first Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1 was developed. For his achievements in the framework of the atomic project, Gustav Hertz was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1951.
German specialists, who received permission to return to their homeland (naturally, to the GDR), signed a non-disclosure agreement for 25 years about their participation in the Soviet atomic project. In Germany, they continued to work in their specialty. Thus, Manfred von Ardenne, twice awarded the National Prize of the GDR, served as director of the Physics Institute in Dresden, created under the auspices of the Scientific Council for the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, headed by Gustav Hertz. Hertz also received a national prize as the author of a three-volume textbook on nuclear physics. In the same place, in Dresden, at the Technical University, Rudolf Pose also worked.
The participation of German scientists in the atomic project, as well as the successes of the intelligence officers, in no way detract from the merits of Soviet scientists, who, with their selfless labor, ensured the creation of domestic atomic weapons. However, it must be admitted that without the contribution of both, the creation of the atomic industry and atomic weapons in the USSR would have dragged on for many years.
Little boy
The American uranium bomb that destroyed Hiroshima was of a cannon design. Soviet atomic scientists, creating the RDS-1, were guided by the "Nagasaki bomb" - Fat Boy, made of plutonium according to the implosion scheme.
Manfred von Ardenne, who developed a method for gaseous diffusion purification and separation of uranium isotopes in a centrifuge.
Operation Crossroads is a series of atomic bomb tests conducted by the United States on Bikini Atoll in the summer of 1946. The goal was to test the effect of atomic weapons on ships.Help from overseas
In 1933, the German communist Klaus Fuchs fled to England. After receiving a physics degree from the University of Bristol, he continued to work. In 1941, Fuchs announced his participation in atomic research to the Soviet intelligence agent Jurgen Kuchinsky, who informed the Soviet ambassador Ivan Maisky. He instructed the military attaché to urgently establish contact with Fuchs, who, as part of a group of scientists, were going to be transported to the United States. Fuchs agreed to work for Soviet intelligence. Many illegal Soviet intelligence officers were involved in working with him: the spouses Zarubins, Eitingon, Vasilevsky, Semenov and others. As a result of their vigorous activity, already in January 1945, the USSR had a description of the design of the first atomic bomb. At the same time, the Soviet residency in the United States reported that the Americans would need at least one year, but no more than five years, to create a significant arsenal of atomic weapons. The message also said that the explosion of the first two bombs may be made within a few months.
Nuclear fission pioneers
K. A. Petrzhak and G. N. Flerov
In 1940, in the laboratory of Igor Kurchatov, two young physicists discovered a new, very peculiar type of radioactive decay of atomic nuclei - spontaneous fission.
Otto Hahn
In December 1938, German physicists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann carried out the first artificial fission of the uranium atom nucleus in the world.Ancient Indian and ancient Greek scientists assumed that matter consists of the smallest indivisible particles, in their treatises they wrote about this long before the beginning of our era. In the V century. BC NS. the Greek scientist Leucippus of Mi-Leta and his student Democritus formulated the concept of an atom (Greek atomos "indivisible"). For many centuries this theory remained rather philosophical, and it was only in 1803 that the scientific theory of the atom, confirmed by experiments, was proposed by the English chemist John Dalton.
At the end of the XIX beginning of the XX century. this theory was developed in their writings by Joseph Thomson, and then Ernest Rutherford, called the father of nuclear physics. It was found that the atom, contrary to its name, is not an indivisible finite particle, as previously stated. In 1911, physicists adopted Rutherford Bohr's "planetary" system, according to which an atom consists of a positively charged nucleus and negatively charged electrons revolving around it. Later it was found that the nucleus is also not indivisible; it consists of positively charged protons and neutrons that do not have a charge, which, in turn, consist of elementary particles.
As soon as scientists more or less understood the structure of the atomic nucleus, they tried to fulfill the long-held dream of alchemists to transform one substance into another. In 1934, French scientists Frederic and Irene Joliot-Curie bombarded aluminum with alpha particles (helium nuclei) to obtain radioactive phosphorus atoms, which, in turn, were converted into a stable isotope of silicon, a heavier element than aluminum. The idea arose to conduct a similar experiment with the heaviest natural element, uranium, discovered in 1789 by Martin Klaproth. After in 1896, Henri Becquerel discovered the radioactivity of uranium salts, this element seriously interested scientists.
E. Rutherford.
Mushroom of a nuclear explosion.
In 1938, German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann conducted an experiment similar to the Joliot-Curie experiment, although using uranium instead of aluminum, they hoped to obtain a new superheavy element. However, the result was unexpected: instead of superheavy, light elements from the middle part of the periodic table were obtained. After some time, physicist Lisa Meitner suggested that the bombardment of uranium with neutrons leads to the splitting (fission) of its nucleus, as a result of which nuclei of light elements are obtained and a certain number of free neutrons remain.
Further research showed that natural uranium consists of a mixture of three isotopes, with uranium-235 being the least stable of them. From time to time, the nuclei of its atoms spontaneously split into parts, this process is accompanied by the release of two or three free neutrons, which rush at a speed of about 10 thousand km s. The nuclei of the most common isotope-pa-238 in most cases simply capture these neutrons, less often the transformation of uranium into neptunium and further into plutonium-239 occurs. When a neutron enters the nucleus of uranium-2 3 5, its new fission immediately occurs.
It was obvious: if you take a large enough piece of pure (enriched) uranium-235, the fission reaction in it will go like an avalanche, this reaction was called a chain reaction. Fission of each nucleus releases a tremendous amount of energy. It was calculated that the complete fission of 1 kg of uranium-235 releases the same amount of heat as the combustion of 3,000 tons of coal. This colossal release of energy, released in a matter of moments, was supposed to manifest itself as an explosion of monstrous force, which, of course, immediately interested the military departments.
Spouses Joliot-Curies. 1940s
L. Meitner and O. Gahn. 1925 g.
Before the outbreak of World War II, Germany and some other countries carried out strictly classified work on the creation of nuclear weapons. In the United States, research designated the Manhattan Project began in 1941, and a year later the world's largest research laboratory was founded in Los Alamos. Administratively, the project was subordinate to General Groves, and the scientific supervision was carried out by the professor of the University of California, Robert Oppenheimer. The largest authorities in the field of physics and chemistry took part in the work of the project, including 13 Nobel laureates: Enrico Fermi, James Frank, Niels Bohr, Ernest Lawrence and others.
The main task was to obtain a sufficient amount of uranium-235. It was found that plutonium-2 39 can also serve as a charge for the bomb, so the work was carried out in two directions at once. The accumulation of uranium-235 was to be carried out by separating it from the bulk of natural uranium, and plutonium could only be obtained as a result of a controlled nuclear reaction when uranium-238 was irradiated with neutrons. Natural uranium was enriched at Westinghouse factories, and a nuclear reactor had to be built to produce plutonium.
It was in the reactor that the process of irradiation of uranium rods with neutrons took place, as a result of which part of the uranium-238 had to turn into plutonium. In this case, the fissile atoms of uranium-235 were the sources of neutrons, but the capture of neutrons by uranium-238 prevented the chain reaction from starting. The discovery of Enrico Fermi, who discovered that neutrons slowed down to a speed of 22 ms, caused a chain reaction of uranium-235, but were not captured by uranium-238, helped to solve the problem. As a moderator, Fermi suggested a 40-centimeter layer of graphite or heavy water, which includes the hydrogen isotope deuterium.
R. Oppenheimer and Lieutenant General L. Groves. 1945 g.
Calutron in Oak Ridge.
An experimental reactor was built in 1942 under the stands of the Chicago Stadium. On December 2, it had a successful experimental launch. A year later, a new enrichment plant was built in the city of Oak Ridge and a reactor for industrial production of plutonium was launched, as well as a calutron device for the electromagnetic separation of uranium isotopes. The total cost of the project was about $ 2 billion. Meanwhile, in Los Alamos, work was going on directly on the device of the bomb and methods of detonating the charge.
On June 16, 1945, near the city of Alamogordo, New Mexico, the world's first nuclear device with a plutonium charge and an implosive (using chemical explosives) detonation scheme was detonated during tests codenamed Trinity. The power of the explosion was equivalent to an explosion of 20 kilotons of TNT.
The next step was the military use of nuclear weapons against Japan, which, after the surrender of Germany, alone continued the war against the United States and its allies. On August 6, a B-29 Enola Gay bomber under the control of Colonel Tibbets dropped a Little Boy bomb on Hiroshima with a uranium charge and a cannon (using a combination of two blocks to create a critical mass) detonation scheme. The bomb was dropped by parachute and exploded at an altitude of 600 m from the ground. On August 9, Major Sweeney's Box Car dropped a Fat Man plutonium bomb on Nagasaki. The consequences of the explosions were dire. Both cities were almost completely destroyed, more than 200 thousand people died in Hiroshima, about 80 thousand people died in Nagasaki. Later, one of the pilots admitted that they saw at that second the worst thing that a person can see. Unable to resist new weapons, the Japanese government capitulated.
Hiroshima after the atomic bombing.
The explosion of the atomic bomb put an end to the Second World War, but in fact started a new "cold" war, accompanied by a rampant nuclear arms race. Soviet scientists had to catch up with the Americans. In 1943, a secret "laboratory No. 2" was created, headed by the famous physicist Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov. Later the laboratory was transformed into the Institute of Atomic Energy. In December 1946, the first chain reaction was carried out at the experimental nuclear uranium-graphite reactor F1. Two years later, the first plutonium plant with several industrial reactors was built in the Soviet Union, and in August 1949, a test explosion of the first Soviet atomic bomb with a plutonium charge RDS-1 with a capacity of 22 kilotons was carried out at the Semipalatinsk test site.
In November 1952, on Enewetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, the United States detonated the first thermonuclear charge, the destructive force of which arose from the energy released during the nuclear fusion of light elements into heavier ones. Nine months later, at the Semipalatinsk test site, Soviet scientists tested the RDS-6 thermonuclear, or hydrogen, 400 kiloton bomb, developed by a group of scientists led by Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov and Yuli Borisovich Khariton. In October 1961, the 50-mega-ton Tsar Bomba, the most powerful hydrogen bomb ever tested, was detonated at the Novaya Zemlya test site.
I. V. Kurchatov.
At the end of the 2000s, the United States had about 5,000 and Russia 2,800 units of nuclear weapons on deployed strategic carriers, as well as a significant number of tactical nuclear weapons. This supply is enough to destroy the entire planet several times. Just one thermonuclear bomb of average yield (about 25 megatons) is equal to 1,500 Hiroshima.
In the late 1970s, research was carried out to create a neutron weapon, a type of low-yield nuclear bomb. A neutron bomb differs from a conventional nuclear bomb in that it has artificially increased that fraction of the explosion energy that is released in the form of neutron radiation. This radiation affects the enemy's manpower, affects his weapons and creates radioactive contamination of the area, while the impact of the shock wave and light radiation is limited. However, not a single army in the world has ever adopted neutron charges.
Although the use of nuclear energy has put the world on the brink of destruction, it also has a peaceful hypostasis, however, extremely dangerous when it gets out of control, this was clearly shown by the accidents at the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear power plants. The world's first nuclear power plant with a capacity of only 5 MW was launched on June 27, 1954 in the village of Obninskoye, Kaluga Region (now the city of Obninsk). Today there are more than 400 nuclear power plants in operation in the world, 10 of them in Russia. They generate about 17% of all world electricity, and this figure is likely to only increase. At present, the world cannot do without the use of nuclear energy, but I would like to believe that in the future humanity will find a safer source of energy supply.
Control panel of the nuclear power plant in Obninsk.
Chernobyl after the disaster.
On August 12, 1953, at 7.30 am, the first Soviet hydrogen bomb was tested at the Semipalatinsk test site, which had the service name "Product RDS-6c". This was the fourth Soviet nuclear weapon test.
The beginning of the first work on the thermonuclear program in the USSR dates back to 1945. Then information was received about the research conducted in the United States on the thermonuclear problem. They were initiated by the American physicist Edward Teller in 1942. The Teller concept of thermonuclear weapons was taken as a basis, which in the circles of Soviet nuclear scientists received the name "pipe" - a cylindrical container with liquid deuterium, which was supposed to be heated from the explosion of an initiating device such as a conventional atomic bomb. It was only in 1950 that the Americans established that the "pipe" was futile, and they continued to develop other designs. But by this time, Soviet physicists had already independently developed another concept of thermonuclear weapons, which soon - in 1953 - led to success.
An alternative hydrogen bomb scheme was invented by Andrei Sakharov. The bomb was based on the idea of "puff" and the use of lithium-6 deuteride. Developed at KB-11 (today it is the city of Sarov, formerly Arzamas-16, Nizhny Novgorod Region), the RDS-6s thermonuclear charge was a spherical system of layers of uranium and thermonuclear fuel surrounded by a chemical explosive.
Academician Sakharov - deputy and dissidentMay 21 marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of the Soviet physicist, politician, dissident, one of the creators of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Academician Andrei Sakharov. He died in 1989 at the age of 68, seven of which Andrei Dmitrievich spent in exile.
To increase the energy release of the charge, tritium was used in its design. The main task in the creation of such a weapon was to heat and ignite heavy hydrogen - deuterium with the help of the energy released during the explosion of an atomic bomb, to carry out thermonuclear reactions with the release of energy, capable of supporting themselves. To increase the fraction of "burnt" deuterium, Sakharov proposed to surround deuterium with a shell of ordinary natural uranium, which was supposed to slow down the expansion and, most importantly, significantly increase the density of deuterium. The phenomenon of ionization compression of thermonuclear fuel, which became the basis of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb, is still called "saccharification".
According to the results of work on the first hydrogen bomb, Andrei Sakharov received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor and laureate of the Stalin Prize.
"Product RDS-6s" was made in the form of a transportable bomb weighing 7 tons, which was placed in the bomb hatch of the Tu-16 bomber. For comparison, the bomb, created by the Americans, weighed 54 tons and was the size of a three-story building.
To assess the destructive effects of the new bomb, a city of industrial and administrative buildings was built at the Semipalatinsk test site. In total, there were 190 different structures on the field. In this test, vacuum intakes for radiochemical samples were used for the first time, which automatically opened under the action of a shock wave. A total of 500 different measuring, recording and filming devices installed in underground casemates and solid ground structures were prepared for testing the RDS-6s. Aviation-technical support of tests - measurement of the pressure of the shock wave on the aircraft in the air at the time of the explosion of the product, air sampling from the radioactive cloud, aerial photography of the area was carried out by a special flight unit. The bomb was detonated remotely, by giving a signal from the remote control, which was located in the bunker.
It was decided to make an explosion on a steel tower 40 meters high, the charge was located at a height of 30 meters. The radioactive soil from past tests was removed to a safe distance, special structures were rebuilt in their own places on the old foundations, a bunker was built 5 meters from the tower to install the equipment developed at the Institute of Chemical Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, recording thermonuclear processes.
Military equipment of all combat arms was installed on the field. During the tests, all experimental structures within a radius of up to four kilometers were destroyed. A hydrogen bomb explosion could completely destroy a city 8 kilometers across. The environmental consequences of the explosion were dire, with the first explosion accounting for 82% strontium-90 and 75% cesium-137.
The power of the bomb reached 400 kilotons, 20 times more than the first atomic bombs in the USA and the USSR.
Destruction of the last nuclear charge in Semipalatinsk. referenceOn May 31, 1995, the last nuclear charge was destroyed at the former Semipalatinsk test site. The Semipalatinsk test site was created in 1948 specifically for testing the first Soviet nuclear device. The test site was located in northeastern Kazakhstan.
The work on the creation of the hydrogen bomb was the world's first intellectual "battle of the minds" of a truly global scale. The creation of the hydrogen bomb initiated the emergence of completely new scientific directions - physics of high-temperature plasma, physics of ultra-high energy densities, physics of anomalous pressures. For the first time in the history of mankind, mathematical modeling was used on a large scale.
Work on the "RDS-6s product" created a scientific and technical groundwork, which was then used in the development of an incomparably more advanced hydrogen bomb of a fundamentally new type - a two-stage hydrogen bomb.
The Sakharov's hydrogen bomb not only became a serious counterargument in the political confrontation between the United States and the USSR, but also served as the reason for the rapid development of Soviet cosmonautics in those years. It was after the successful nuclear tests that the Korolev Design Bureau received an important government task to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile to deliver the created charge to the target. Subsequently, the rocket, called the "seven", launched the first artificial satellite of the Earth into space, and it was on it that the first cosmonaut of the planet, Yuri Gagarin, started.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
The one who invented the atomic bomb did not even imagine what tragic consequences this miracle invention of the 20th century could lead to. Before this superweapon was tested by the inhabitants of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a very long way had been done.
A start
In April 1903, his friends gathered in the Paris Gardens of the famous French physicist Paul Langevin. The reason was the defense of the dissertation by the young and talented scientist Marie Curie. Among the distinguished guests was the famous English physicist Sir Ernest Rutherford. In the midst of the fun, the lights were extinguished. Maria Curie announced to everyone that there would be a surprise now.With a solemn air, Pierre Curie brought in a small tube with radium salts, which shone with a green light, causing extraordinary delight among those present. In the future, the guests hotly talked about the future of this phenomenon. Everyone agreed that radium would solve the acute problem of energy shortage. This inspired everyone to new research and future prospects.
If then they were told that laboratory work with radioactive elements would lay the foundation for a terrible weapon of the 20th century, it is not known what their reaction would be. It was then that the history of the atomic bomb began, which claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians.
Leading the way
On December 17, 1938, the 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 Gann 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 Nazi Germany will be the first to receive a terrible weapon, he writes a letter to the President of America with a warning about this.
The news of a possible advance greatly alarmed the US government. The Americans began to act quickly and decisively.
Who created the atomic bomb? American project
Even before the outbreak of World War II, a group of American scientists, many of whom were refugees from the Nazi regime in Europe, were entrusted with the development of nuclear weapons. The initial research, it is worth noting, was carried out in Nazi Germany. In 1940, the government of the United States of America began funding its own nuclear weapons program. An incredible amount of two and a half billion dollars was allocated for the implementation of the project.Outstanding physicists of the 20th century, among whom were more than ten Nobel laureates, were invited to carry out this secret project. 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, and Robert Oppenheimer became the scientific director. It is he who is the person 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 several years, scientists of the secret project worked on the problem of nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium.
The 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, at the beginning of the 30s of the last century, no one knew this.In 1932, Academician Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov was one of the first in the world to begin studying the atomic nucleus. Gathering like-minded people around him, Igor Vasilyevich in 1937 creates the first cyclotron in Europe. In the same year, he and his like-minded people create the first artificial nuclei.
In 1939, IV Kurchatov began to study a new direction - nuclear physics. After several laboratory successes in the study of this phenomenon, the scientist gets at his disposal a classified research center, which was named "Laboratory No. 2". Today this classified object is called "Arzamas-16".The focus of this 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.
The atomic bomb be
By the end of 1945, Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov managed to assemble a serious team of scientists numbering more than a 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 understood 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 enormous labors of Soviet scientists have borne fruit.Semipalatinsk test site
The atomic bomb in the USSR was first tested at the test site in Semipalatinsk (Kazakhstan). On August 29, 1949, a 22 kiloton nuclear device shook the Kazakh land. Nobel laureate physicist Otto Hantz 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 number 501, or RDS-1, that eliminated the US monopoly on nuclear weapons.Atomic bomb. 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 Alamogordo test site in New Mexico, USA.The money invested in the project was well spent. The first atomic explosion in the history of mankind was made at 5 hours 30 minutes in the morning.
“We have done the work of the devil,” Robert Oppenheimer would later say - the one who invented the atomic bomb in the United States, later called the “father of the atomic bomb”.
Japan does not surrender
By the time of the final and successful testing of the atomic bomb, Soviet troops and allies finally defeated Nazi Germany. However, there was only one state that promised to fight to the end for domination in the Pacific Ocean. From mid-April to mid-July 1945, the Japanese army repeatedly carried out air strikes against allied forces, thereby inflicting heavy losses on the US army. In late July 1945, the Japanese militarist government rejected the Allied demand for surrender in accordance with the Potsdam Declaration. In it, in particular, it was said that in case of disobedience, the Japanese army would face swift and complete destruction.President agrees
The American government kept its word and began a targeted bombing of Japanese military positions. Air strikes did not bring the desired result, and US President Harry Truman made the decision to invade Japanese territory by American troops. However, the military command discourages its president from such a decision, citing the fact that the American invasion will entail a large number of casualties.At the suggestion of Henry Lewis Stimson and Dwight David Eisenhower, it was decided to use a more effective way of ending the war. A big supporter of the atomic bomb, Secretary of the President of the United States James Francis Byrnes, believed that the bombing of Japanese territories would finally end the war and put the United States in a dominant position, which would positively affect the further course of events in the post-war world. Thus, US President Harry Truman was convinced that this is the only correct option.
Atomic bomb. Hiroshima
The first target was 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. After the modified Enola Gay B-29 bomber arrived at the US naval base on Tinian Island, an atomic bomb was planted on board the aircraft. Hiroshima was to experience the effects of 9,000 pounds of uranium-235.
This unprecedented weapon was intended for the civilians of a small Japanese town. The commander of the bomber was Colonel Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. The US atomic bomb bore the cynical name "Kid". On the morning of August 6, 1945, at about 8:15 am, the American Kid was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. About 15 thousand tons of TNT destroyed all life within a radius of five square miles. One hundred and forty thousand residents of the city died in a matter of seconds. The surviving Japanese died an agonizing death from radiation sickness.They were destroyed by the American atomic "Kid". However, the devastation of Hiroshima did not bring about the immediate surrender of Japan, as everyone expected. Then it was decided to carry out another bombardment of Japanese territory.
Nagasaki. The sky is on fire
The American atomic bomb "Fat Man" was installed on board the B-29 aircraft on August 9, 1945, in the same place, at the US naval base in Tinian. This time, Major Charles Sweeney was in command of the aircraft. The original strategic target was the city of Kokura.However, the weather conditions did not allow the plan to be implemented, the large cloudiness interfered. Charles Sweeney went into the second round. At 11 02 a.m. the American atomic "Fat Man" swallowed Nagasaki. It was a more powerful destructive air strike, which in its power was several times higher than the bombing in Hiroshima. Nagasaki tested atomic weapons weighing about 10 thousand pounds and 22 kilotons of TNT.
The geographical location of the Japanese city 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 Nagasaki atomic bomb test 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 people of Japan. This news quickly spread throughout the world. Victory over Japan celebrations began in the United States of America. The people were jubilant.
On September 2, 1945, a formal agreement to end the war was signed aboard the American battleship Missouri, 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 been moving towards this significant date - from September 1, 1939, when the first shots of Nazi Germany were fired in Poland.
Peaceful atom
In total, 124 nuclear explosions were carried out in the Soviet Union. It is characteristic that all of them were carried out for the benefit of the national economy. Only three of them were accidents that resulted in the leakage of radioactive elements.Programs for the use of peaceful nuclear energy were implemented only in two countries - the United States and the Soviet Union. Nuclear peaceful energy also knows an example of a global catastrophe, when on April 26, 1986, a reactor explosion occurred at the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Loading...
