Who created the atomic bomb. Five stages in the creation of the first Soviet atomic bomb. "This is atomic lightning"

Development of the Soviet nuclear weapons began with the mining of samples of radium in the early 1930s. In 1939, Soviet physicists Yuli Khariton and Yakov Zel'dovich calculated the chain reaction of nuclear fission of heavy atoms. The following year, scientists from the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology sent applications for the creation atomic bomb, as well as ways to produce uranium-235. For the first time, researchers proposed using conventional explosives as a means to ignite the charge, which would create a critical mass and start a chain reaction.

However, the invention of the Kharkov physicists had its shortcomings, and therefore their application, having managed to visit various authorities, was ultimately rejected. The decisive word was left to the director of the Radium Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Academician Vitaly Khlopin: “... the application has no real basis. In addition, there is in fact a lot of fantastic in it ... Even if it were possible to realize a chain reaction, then the energy that is released is better used to drive engines, for example, aircraft.

The appeals of scientists on the eve of the Great Patriotic War to People's Commissar of Defense Sergei Timoshenko. As a result, the project of the invention was buried on a shelf labeled "top secret".

  • Vladimir Semyonovich Spinel
  • Wikimedia Commons

In 1990, journalists asked Vladimir Shpinel, one of the authors of the bomb project: “If your proposals in 1939-1940 were duly appreciated at the government level and you were given support, when could the USSR have atomic weapons?”

“I think that with such opportunities that Igor Kurchatov later had, we would have received it in 1945,” Spinel replied.

However, it was Kurchatov who managed to use in his developments the successful American schemes for creating a plutonium bomb obtained by Soviet intelligence.

nuclear race

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, nuclear research was temporarily stopped. The main scientific institutes of the two capitals were evacuated to remote regions.

The head of strategic intelligence, Lavrenty Beria, was aware of the developments of Western physicists in the field of nuclear weapons. For the first time, the Soviet leadership learned about the possibility of creating a superweapon from the "father" of the American atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, who visited Soviet Union in September 1939. In the early 1940s, both politicians and scientists realized the reality of getting nuclear bomb, as well as the fact that its appearance in the arsenal of the enemy will endanger the security of other powers.

In 1941, the Soviet government received the first intelligence from the United States and Great Britain, where active work had already begun on the creation of a superweapon. The main informant was the Soviet "atomic spy" Klaus Fuchs, a German physicist involved in the US and British nuclear programs.

  • Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, physicist Pyotr Kapitsa
  • RIA News
  • V. Noskov

Academician Pyotr Kapitsa, speaking on October 12, 1941 at an anti-fascist rally of scientists, stated: “Explosives are one of the important means of modern warfare. Science indicates the fundamental possibility of increasing the explosive force by 1.5-2 times ... Theoretical calculations show that if a modern powerful bomb can, for example, destroy an entire quarter, then an atomic bomb of even a small size, if it is feasible, could easily destroy a major metropolitan city with several million inhabitants. My personal opinion is that the technical difficulties that stand in the way of using it internally atomic energy, are still very large. So far, this case is still doubtful, but it is very likely that there are great opportunities here.

In September 1942, the Soviet government adopted a resolution "On the organization of work on uranium". In the spring of the following year, Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences was created to produce the first Soviet bomb. Finally, on February 11, 1943, Stalin signed the decision of the GKO on the program of work to create an atomic bomb. Lead at first important task instructed the Deputy Chairman of the GKO Vyacheslav Molotov. It was he who had to find the scientific director of the new laboratory.

Molotov himself, in a note dated July 9, 1971, recalls his decision as follows: “We have been working on this topic since 1943. I was instructed to answer for them, to find such a person who could carry out the creation of an atomic bomb. The Chekists gave me a list of reliable physicists who could be relied upon, and I chose. He summoned Kapitsa to himself, an academician. He said that we were not ready for this and that the atomic bomb was not a weapon of this war, but a matter for the future. Ioffe was asked - he, too, somehow vaguely reacted to this. In short, I had the youngest and still unknown Kurchatov, he was not given a go. I called him, we talked, he made a good impression on me. But he said he still had a lot of ambiguities. Then I decided to give him the materials of our intelligence - the intelligence officers did a very important job. Kurchatov spent several days in the Kremlin, with me, over these materials.

Over the next couple of weeks, Kurchatov thoroughly studied the data obtained by intelligence and drew up an expert opinion: “The materials are of tremendous, invaluable importance for our state and science ... The totality of information indicates the technical possibility of solving the entire uranium problem in a much shorter time than our scientists think who are not familiar with the progress of work on this problem abroad.

In mid-March, Igor Kurchatov took over as scientific director of Laboratory No. 2. In April 1946, for the needs of this laboratory, it was decided to create design department KB-11. The top-secret object was located on the territory of the former Sarov Monastery, a few tens of kilometers from Arzamas.

  • Igor Kurchatov (right) with a group of employees of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology
  • RIA News

KB-11 specialists were supposed to create an atomic bomb using plutonium as a working substance. At the same time, in the process of creating the first nuclear weapon in the USSR, domestic scientists relied on the schemes of the US plutonium bomb, which was successfully tested in 1945. However, since the production of plutonium in the Soviet Union was not yet involved, physicists at the initial stage used uranium mined in Czechoslovak mines, as well as in the territories East Germany, Kazakhstan and Kolyma.

The first Soviet atomic bomb was named RDS-1 ("Special Jet Engine"). A group of specialists led by Kurchatov managed to load a sufficient amount of uranium into it and start a chain reaction in the reactor on June 10, 1948. The next step was to use plutonium.

"This is atomic lightning"

In the plutonium "Fat Man", dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, American scientists laid 10 kilograms of radioactive metal. The USSR managed to accumulate such a quantity of substance by June 1949. The head of the experiment, Kurchatov, informed the curator of the atomic project, Lavrenty Beria, that he was ready to test the RDS-1 on August 29.

A part of the Kazakh steppe with an area of ​​about 20 kilometers was chosen as a testing ground. In its central part, experts built a metal tower almost 40 meters high. It was on it that the RDS-1 was installed, the mass of which was 4.7 tons.

The Soviet physicist Igor Golovin describes the situation that prevailed at the test site a few minutes before the start of the tests: “Everything is fine. And suddenly, with a general silence, ten minutes before “one”, Beria’s voice is heard: “But nothing will work out for you, Igor Vasilyevich!” - “What are you, Lavrenty Pavlovich! It will definitely work!" - exclaims Kurchatov and continues to watch, only his neck turned purple and his face became gloomy and concentrated.

To Abram Ioyrysh, a prominent scientist in the field of atomic law, Kurchatov’s condition seems similar to a religious experience: “Kurchatov rushed out of the casemate, ran up an earthen rampart and shouted “She!” waved his arms widely, repeating: “She, she!” and a gleam spread over his face. The pillar of the explosion swirled and went into the stratosphere. A shock wave was approaching the command post, clearly visible on the grass. Kurchatov rushed towards her. Flerov rushed after him, grabbed him by the arm, forcibly dragged him into the casemate and closed the door. The author of the biography of Kurchatov, Pyotr Astashenkov, endows his hero with the following words: “This is atomic lightning. Now she is in our hands ... "

Immediately after the explosion, the metal tower collapsed to the ground, and only a funnel remained in its place. A powerful shock wave threw highway bridges a couple of tens of meters away, and the cars that were nearby scattered across the open spaces almost 70 meters from the explosion site.

  • Nuclear mushroom ground explosion RDS-1 August 29, 1949
  • Archive RFNC-VNIIEF

Once, after another test, Kurchatov was asked: “Are you not worried about the moral side of this invention?”

“You asked a legitimate question,” he replied. But I think it's misdirected. It is better to address it not to us, but to those who unleashed these forces... It is not physics that is terrible, but an adventurous game, not science, but the use of it by scoundrels... When science makes a breakthrough and opens up the possibility for actions that affect millions of people, the need arises to rethink the norms of morality in order to bring these actions under control. But nothing of the sort happened. Rather the opposite. Just think about it - Churchill's speech in Fulton, military bases, bombers along our borders. The intentions are very clear. Science has been turned into an instrument of blackmail and the main determinant of politics. Do you think morality will stop them? And if this is the case, and this is the case, you have to talk to them in their language. Yes, I know that the weapon we have created is an instrument of violence, but we were forced to create it in order to avoid more heinous violence!” - the answer of the scientist in the book of Abram Ioyrysh and nuclear physicist Igor Morokhov "A-bomb" is described.

A total of five RDS-1 bombs were manufactured. All of them were stored in the closed city of Arzamas-16. Now you can see the model of the bomb in the nuclear weapons museum in Sarov (former Arzamas-16).

On February 7, 1960, the famous Soviet scientist Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov died. Outstanding Physicist in the most difficult time he created a nuclear shield for his homeland. We will tell you how the first atomic bomb was developed in the USSR

Discovery of a nuclear reaction.

Since 1918, scientists in the USSR have been conducting research in the field of nuclear physics. But only before the Second World War there was a positive shift. Kurchatov came to grips with the study of radioactive transformations in 1932. And in 1939, he supervised the launch of the first cyclotron in the Soviet Union, which took place at the Radium Institute in Leningrad.

At that time this cyclotron was the largest in Europe. This was followed by a series of discoveries. Kurchatov discovered the branching of a nuclear reaction when phosphorus is irradiated with neutrons. A year later, the scientist in his report "The fission of heavy nuclei" substantiated the creation of a uranium nuclear reactor. Kurchatov pursued a previously unattainable goal, he wanted to show how to use nuclear energy in practice.

War is a stumbling block.

Thanks to Soviet scientists, including Igor Kurchatov, our country in the development of nuclear research at that time reached the forefront: there were many scientific developments in this area, personnel were being trained. But the outbreak of the war almost crossed everything out. All research in nuclear physics was discontinued. Moscow and Leningrad institutes were evacuated, and the scientists themselves were forced to help the needs of the front. Kurchatov himself worked on protecting ships from mines and even dismantled mines.

The role of intelligence.

Many historians are of the opinion that without intelligence and spies in the West, the atomic bomb would not have appeared in the USSR in such a short time. Since 1939, information on the nuclear issue was collected by the GRU of the Red Army and the 1st Directorate of the NKVD. The first message about plans to create an atomic bomb in England, which by the beginning of the war was one of the leaders in nuclear research, came in 1940. Fuchs, a member of the KKE, was among the scientists. For some time he transmitted information through spies, but then the connection was interrupted.

Worked in the USA Soviet spy Semenov. In 1943, he reported that the first nuclear chain reaction had been carried out in Chicago. It is curious that the wife of the famous sculptor Konenkov also worked for intelligence. She was friends with the famous physicists Oppenheimer and Einstein. In various ways, the Soviet authorities introduced their agents into the centers of American nuclear research. And in 1944, the NKVD even created a special department that collected information about Western developments on the nuclear issue. In January 1945, Fuchs transmitted a description of the design of the first atomic bomb.

So intelligence greatly facilitated and accelerated the work of Soviet scientists. Indeed, the first test of the atomic bomb took place in 1949, although American experts assumed that this would happen in ten years.

Arms race.

Despite the height of hostilities, in September 1942, Joseph Stalin signed an order to resume work on the nuclear issue. On February 11, Laboratory No. 2 was created, and on March 10, 1943, Igor Kurchatov was appointed scientific director of the project on the use of atomic energy. Kurchatov was given emergency powers and promised all kinds of government support. So in as soon as possible created and tested the first nuclear reactor. Then Stalin gave two years to create the atomic bomb itself, but in the spring of 1948 this period expired. However, scientists could not demonstrate the bomb, they did not even have the necessary fissile materials for its production. The deadlines were pushed back, but not by much - until March 1, 1949.

Of course, the scientific developments of Kurchatov and scientists from his laboratory were not published in the open press. They sometimes did not receive proper coverage even in closed reports due to lack of time. Scientists have worked hard to keep up with competitors - Western countries. Especially after the bombings that the US military dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.


Overcoming difficulties.

The creation of a nuclear explosive device required the construction of an industrial nuclear reactor for its development. But then difficulties arose, because the necessary materials for the operation of a nuclear reactor - uranium, graphite - still need to be obtained.

Note that even a small reactor required about 36 tons of uranium, 9 tons of uranium dioxide and about 500 tons of pure graphite. The graphite shortage was resolved by mid-1943. Kurchatov participated in the development of the entire technological process. And in May 1944, the production of graphite was established at the Moscow Electrode Plant. But the required amount of uranium was still not there.

A year later, mines in Czechoslovakia and East Germany resumed work, uranium deposits were discovered in Kolyma, in the Chita region, in Central Asia, in Kazakhstan, Ukraine and the North Caucasus. After that, they began to create atomic cities. The first appeared in the Urals, near the city of Kyshtym. Kurchatov personally supervised the loading of uranium into the reactor. Then three more plants were built - two near Sverdlovsk and one in the Gorky region (Arzamas -16).

Launch of the first nuclear reactor.

Finally, at the beginning of 1948, a group of scientists led by Kurchatov began the installation of a nuclear reactor. Igor Vasilievich was almost constantly at the facility, all responsibility for decisions taken he took over. He personally carried out all the stages of launching the first industrial reactor. There were several attempts. So, on June 8, he began the experiment. When the reactor reached a power of one hundred kilowatts, Kurchatov interrupted the chain reaction because there was not enough uranium to complete the process. Kurchatov understood the danger of the experiments and on June 17 he wrote in the operational log:

I warn you that if the water supply stops, there will be an explosion, so under no circumstances should the water supply be stopped ... It is necessary to monitor the water level in emergency tanks and the operation of pumping stations.

Atomic bomb test at the test site near Semipalatinsk

Successful test of the atomic bomb.

By 1947, Kurchatov managed to obtain laboratory plutonium-239 - about 20 micrograms. It was separated from uranium chemical methods. Two years later, scientists managed to accumulate a sufficient amount. On August 5, 1949, he was sent by train to KB-11. By this time, experts had finished assembling the explosive device. The nuclear charge, assembled on the night of August 10-11, received the index 501 for the RDS-1 atomic bomb. As soon as this abbreviation was not deciphered: “special jet engine”, “Stalin's jet engine”, “Russia makes itself”.

After the experiments, the device was disassembled and sent to the landfill. The test of the first Soviet nuclear charge took place on August 29 at Semipalatinsk polygon. The bomb was installed on a tower 37.5 meters high. When the bomb exploded, the tower collapsed completely and a crater formed in its place. The next day we went to the field to check the effect of the bomb. The tanks on which the impact force was tested were overturned, the guns were mangled by the blast wave, and ten Pobeda vehicles burned down. Note that the Soviet atomic bomb was made in 2 years 8 months. For US scientists, it took a month less.

The fathers of the atomic bomb are usually called the American Robert Oppenheimer and the Soviet scientist Igor Kurchatov. But considering that work on the deadly was carried out in parallel in four countries and, in addition to the scientists of these countries, people from Italy, Hungary, Denmark, etc., took part in them, the resulting bomb can rightly be called the brainchild of different peoples.


The Germans took over first. In December 1938, their physicists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, for the first time in the world, carried out artificial fission of the uranium atom nucleus. In April 1939, the military leadership of Germany received a letter from professors of the University of Hamburg P. Harteck and V. Groth, which indicated the fundamental possibility of creating a new type of highly effective explosive. The scientists wrote: "The country that is the first to be able to practically master the achievements of nuclear physics will gain absolute superiority over others." And now, in the Imperial Ministry of Science and Education, a meeting is being held on the topic "On a self-propagating (that is, a chain) nuclear reaction." Among the participants is Professor E. Schumann, head of the research department of the Third Reich Arms Administration. Without delay, we moved from words to deeds. Already in June 1939, the construction of Germany's first reactor plant began at the Kummersdorf test site near Berlin. A law was passed to ban 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 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. Wrong, as life has shown.

22 organizations were involved in the project, including such well-known scientific centers, as the Physical Institute of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the University of Hamburg, the Physical Institute of the ETH in Berlin, the Physical and Chemical Institute of the University of Leipzig and many others. The project was personally supervised by the Imperial 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 uranium-235 isotope capable of maintaining a chain reaction. The same company was entrusted with the construction of an isotope separation facility. Such venerable scientists as Heisenberg, Weizsacker, von Ardenne, Riehl, Pose, Nobel laureate Gustav Hertz and others.

Within two years, the Heisenberg group carried out the research needed to create an atomic reactor using uranium and heavy water. It was confirmed that only one of the isotopes, namely uranium-235, contained in a very small concentration in ordinary uranium ore, can serve as an explosive. The first problem was how to isolate it from there. The starting point of the bombing program was an atomic reactor, which required either graphite or heavy water as a reaction moderator. German physicists chose water, thereby 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 needed by physicists by the beginning of the war was only tens of kilograms, and the Germans did not get them either - the French stole valuable products literally from under the noses of the Nazis. And in February 1943, the British commandos abandoned in Norway, with the help of local resistance fighters, disabled the plant. The implementation of Germany's nuclear program was in jeopardy. 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 a super-powerful weapon 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 affect the outcome of the current war." The German leadership rationally considered that there was no point in forcing events. Let the scientists work quietly - by the next war, you see, they will have time. As a result, Hitler decided to concentrate scientific, industrial and financial resources only on projects that would give the fastest 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, under 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 neutron moderator-reflector weighing 10 tons. In March 1945, an additional 1.5 tons of heavy water was poured into the core. On March 23, it was reported to Berlin that the reactor had started 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 reserves left. The end of the Third Reich was inexorably approaching. April 23 entered Haigerloch American troops. The reactor was dismantled and taken to the USA.

Meanwhile across the ocean

In parallel with the Germans (with only a slight lag), the development of atomic weapons was taken up in England and the USA. 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 émigré 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 as early as 1943. It was immediately decided to deploy similar work in the Union. Thus began the Soviet atomic project. Tasks 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 promotion of the Soviet nuclear project. The scientists participating 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 nuclear 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 camouflaged in the uniform of colonels of the Red Army. The operation was led by First Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Ivan Serov, which opened any door. In addition to the necessary German scientists, the “colonels” found tons of metallic uranium, which, according to Kurchatov, reduced work on the Soviet bomb by at least a year. The Americans also took out a lot of uranium from Germany, taking the specialists who worked on the project with them. And in the USSR, in addition to physicists and chemists, they sent mechanics, electrical engineers, glassblowers. Some were found in POW camps. For example, Max Steinbeck, the future Soviet academician and the vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR, were taken away when, at the whim of the head of the camp, he made a sundial. In total, at least 1000 German specialists worked on the atomic project in the USSR. From Berlin, the von Ardenne laboratory with a uranium centrifuge, equipment of the Kaiser Institute of Physics, documentation, reagents were completely taken out. Within the framework of the atomic project, laboratories "A", "B", "C" and "G" were created, the scientific supervisors 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 Oktyabrsky 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 field. 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 a Stalin 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 with them furniture, books, paintings, were provided with good salaries and food. Were they prisoners? Academician A.P. Alexandrov, himself an active participant in the atomic project, remarked: "Of course, the German specialists were prisoners, but we ourselves were 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 Riehl worked with his old acquaintance from Germany, the outstanding Russian biologist-geneticist Timofeev-Resovsky (“Zubr” based on the novel by D. Granin).

Recognized in the USSR as a researcher and talented organizer, able to find effective solutions to the most complex problems, Dr. Riehl became one of the key figures in the Soviet atomic project. After the successful testing of the Soviet bomb, he became a Hero of Socialist Labor and a laureate of the Stalin Prize.

The work of 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, and 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 the laboratory "G", located in the Sukhumi sanatorium "Agudzery". He received recognition 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 on 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 (of course, 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 Applications of Atomic Energy, led by Gustav Hertz. Hertz also received a national award - as the author of a three-volume work-textbook on nuclear physics. There, in Dresden, Technical University, Rudolf Pose also worked.

The participation of German scientists in the atomic project, as well as the successes of intelligence officers, in no way detract from the merits of Soviet scientists, who ensured the creation of domestic atomic weapons with their selfless work. 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 nuclear scientists, creating 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 gas diffusion purification and separation of uranium isotopes in a centrifuge.


Operation Crossroads was 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 degree in physics from the University of Bristol, he continued to work. In 1941, Fuchs reported his involvement in atomic research to Soviet intelligence agent Jurgen Kuchinsky, who informed Soviet ambassador Ivan Maisky. He instructed the military attache to urgently establish contact with Fuchs, who, as part of a group of scientists, was going to be transported to the United States. Fuchs agreed to work for Soviet intelligence. Many illegal Soviet spies were involved in working with him: the Zarubins, Eitingon, Vasilevsky, Semyonov and others. As a result of their active work, 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 it would take the Americans at least one year, but no more than five years, to create a significant arsenal of atomic weapons. The report also said that the explosion of the first two bombs might be carried out in 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 atomic nuclei- spontaneous division.


Otto Hahn
In December 1938, German physicists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann for the first time in the world carried out artificial fission of the uranium atom nucleus.

The history of human development has always been accompanied by war as a way to resolve conflicts by violence. Civilization has suffered more than fifteen thousand small and large armed conflicts, losses human lives are in the millions. Only in the nineties of the last century there were more than a hundred military clashes, with the participation of ninety countries of the world.

At the same time, scientific discoveries and technological progress made it possible to create weapons of destruction of ever greater power and sophistication of use. In the twentieth century nuclear weapons have become the peak of massive destructive impact and an instrument of politics.

Atomic bomb device

Modern nuclear bombs as a means of defeating the enemy are created on the basis of advanced technical solutions, the essence of which is not widely publicized. But the main elements inherent in this type of weapon can be considered on the example of the device of a nuclear bomb with the code name "Fat Man", dropped in 1945 on one of the cities of Japan.

The power of the explosion was 22.0 kt in TNT equivalent.

It had the following design features:

  • the length of the product was 3250.0 mm, while the diameter of the bulk part was 1520.0 mm. Total weight over 4.5 tons;
  • the body is represented by an elliptical shape. To avoid premature destruction due to anti-aircraft ammunition and undesirable effects of a different kind, 9.5 mm armored steel was used for its manufacture;
  • the body is divided into four internal parts: the nose, two halves of the ellipsoid (the main one is the compartment for the nuclear filling), the tail.
  • the nose compartment is equipped with rechargeable batteries;
  • the main compartment, like a nasal one, is evacuated to prevent the ingress of harmful media, moisture, and create comfortable conditions for the operation of the boron sensor;
  • the ellipsoid housed a plutonium core, covered by a uranium tamper (shell). It played the role of an inertial limiter over the course of a nuclear reaction, ensuring maximum activity of weapons-grade plutonium by reflecting neutrons to the side of the active zone of the charge.

Inside the nucleus was placed the primary source of neutrons, called the initiator or "hedgehog". Represented by beryllium spherical shape with a diameter 20.0 mm with an outer coating based on polonium - 210.

It should be noted that the expert community has determined such a design of a nuclear weapon to be ineffective and unreliable in use. Neutron initiation of the unguided type was not used further. .

Operating principle

The process of fission of the nuclei of uranium 235 (233) and plutonium 239 (this is what the nuclear bomb consists of) with a huge release of energy while limiting the volume is called a nuclear explosion. The atomic structure of radioactive metals has an unstable shape - they are constantly divided into other elements.

The process is accompanied by the detachment of neurons, some of which, falling on neighboring atoms, initiate a further reaction, accompanied by the release of energy.

The principle is as follows: reducing the decay time leads to a greater intensity of the process, and the concentration of neurons on the bombardment of nuclei leads to a chain reaction. When two elements are combined to a critical mass, a supercritical one will be created, leading to an explosion.


Under domestic conditions, it is impossible to provoke an active reaction - high speeds of approach of elements are needed - at least 2.5 km / s. Achieving this speed in a bomb is possible by using combining types of explosives (fast and slow), balancing the density of the supercritical mass, producing an atomic explosion.

Nuclear explosions are attributed to the results of human activity on the planet or its orbit. Natural processes of this kind are possible only on some stars in outer space.

Atomic bombs are rightfully considered the most powerful and destructive weapons of mass destruction. Tactical use solves the problem of destroying strategic, ground-based, as well as deep-based military facilities, defeating a significant accumulation of enemy equipment and manpower.

It can be applied globally only in pursuit of the goal of complete destruction of the population and infrastructure in large areas.

To achieve certain goals, fulfill tasks of a tactical and strategic nature, detonations of nuclear weapons can be carried out:

  • at critical and low altitudes (above and below 30.0 km);
  • in direct contact with the earth's crust (water);
  • underground (or underwater explosion).

A nuclear explosion is characterized by the instantaneous release of enormous energy.

Leading to the defeat of objects and humans as follows:

  • shock wave. An explosion above or on the earth's crust (water) is called an air wave, underground (water) - a seismic explosive wave. An air wave is formed after a critical compression of air masses and propagates in a circle until attenuation at a speed exceeding sound. It leads to both direct defeat of manpower, and indirect (interaction with fragments of destroyed objects). The action of excess pressure makes the technique non-functional by moving and hitting the ground;
  • light emission. Source - the light part formed by the evaporation of a product with air masses, in case of ground application - soil vapors. Exposure occurs in the ultraviolet and infrared spectra. Its absorption by objects and people provokes charring, melting and burning. The degree of damage depends on the removal of the epicenter;
  • penetrating radiation- this is neutrons and gamma rays moving from the place of the rupture. Impact on biological tissues leads to ionization of cell molecules, leading to radiation sickness of the body. Damage to property is associated with molecular fission reactions in the damaging elements of ammunition.
  • radioactive infection. In a ground explosion, soil vapors, dust, and other things rise. A cloud appears, moving in the direction of the movement of air masses. Sources of damage are fission products of the active part of a nuclear weapon, isotopes, not destroyed parts of the charge. When a radioactive cloud moves, a continuous radiation contamination of the area occurs;
  • electromagnetic impulse. The explosion accompanies the appearance of electromagnetic fields (from 1.0 to 1000 m) in the form of an impulse. They lead to failure electrical appliances, controls and communications.

The combination of factors of a nuclear explosion inflicts damage to the enemy’s manpower, equipment and infrastructure at different levels, and the fatality of the consequences is associated only with the distance from its epicenter.


History of the creation of nuclear weapons

The creation of weapons using a nuclear reaction was accompanied by a number of scientific discoveries, theoretical and practical research, including:

  • 1905- the theory of relativity was created, stating that a small amount of matter corresponds to a significant release of energy according to the formula E \u003d mc2, where "c" represents the speed of light (author A. Einstein);
  • 1938- German scientists conducted an experiment on the division of an atom into parts by attacking uranium with neutrons, which ended successfully (O. Hann and F. Strassmann), and a physicist from the UK gave an explanation for the fact of energy release (R. Frisch);
  • 1939- scientists from France that when carrying out a chain of reactions of uranium molecules, energy will be released capable of producing an explosion of enormous force (Joliot-Curie).

The latter became the starting point for the invention of atomic weapons. Germany, Great Britain, the USA, Japan were engaged in parallel development. The main problem was the extraction of uranium in the required volumes for experiments in this area.

The problem was solved faster in the United States by purchasing raw materials from Belgium in 1940.

Within the framework of the project, called Manhattan, from the thirty-ninth to the forty-fifth year, a uranium purification plant was built, a center for the study of nuclear processes was created, and the best specialists- physicists from all over Western Europe.

Great Britain, which led its own developments, was forced, after the German bombing, to voluntarily transfer the developments on its project to the US military.

The Americans are believed to be the first to invent the atomic bomb. Tests of the first nuclear charge were carried out in the state of New Mexico in July 1945. The flash from the explosion darkened the sky, and the sandy landscape turned to glass. After a short period of time, nuclear charges were created, called "Baby" and "Fat Man".


Nuclear weapons in the USSR - dates and events

The formation of the USSR as a nuclear power was preceded by a long work of individual scientists and state institutions. Key periods and significant dates of events are presented as follows:

  • 1920 consider the beginning of the work of Soviet scientists on the fission of the atom;
  • From the thirties the direction of nuclear physics becomes a priority;
  • October 1940- an initiative group of physicists came up with a proposal to use nuclear developments for military purposes;
  • Summer 1941 in connection with the war, the institutes of atomic energy were transferred to the rear;
  • Autumn 1941 years, Soviet intelligence informed the country's leadership about the start of nuclear programs in Britain and America;
  • September 1942- studies of the atom began to be done in full, work on uranium continued;
  • February 1943- a special research laboratory was created under the leadership of I. Kurchatov, and the general leadership was entrusted to V. Molotov;

The project was led by V. Molotov.

  • August 1945- in connection with the conduct of nuclear bombing in Japan, the high importance of developments for the USSR, a Special Committee was created under the leadership of L. Beria;
  • April 1946- KB-11 was created, which began to develop samples of Soviet nuclear weapons in two versions (using plutonium and uranium);
  • mid 1948- work on uranium was stopped due to low efficiency at high costs;
  • August 1949- when the atomic bomb was invented in the USSR, the first Soviet nuclear bomb was tested.

The quality work of the intelligence agencies, which managed to obtain information on American nuclear developments, contributed to the reduction in the development time of the product. Among those who first created the atomic bomb in the USSR was a team of scientists led by Academician A. Sakharov. They developed more advanced technical solutions than those used by the Americans.


Atomic bomb "RDS-1"

In 2015-2017, Russia made a breakthrough in improving nuclear weapons and their means of delivery, thereby declaring a state capable of repelling any aggression.

First atomic bomb tests

After testing an experimental nuclear bomb in the state of New Mexico in the summer of 1945, the bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki followed on the sixth and ninth of August, respectively.

this year completed the development of the atomic bomb

In 1949, under conditions of increased secrecy, the Soviet designers of KB - 11 and scientists completed the development of an atomic bomb, which was called RDS-1 (jet engine "C"). On August 29, the first Soviet nuclear device was tested at the Semipalatinsk test site. The atomic bomb of Russia - RDS-1 was a product of a "drop-shaped" shape, weighing 4.6 tons, with a volume part diameter of 1.5 m, and a length of 3.7 meters.

The active part included a plutonium block, which made it possible to achieve an explosion power of 20.0 kilotons, commensurate with TNT. The test site covered a radius of twenty kilometers. Features of the test detonation conditions have not been made public to date.

On September 3 of the same year, American aviation intelligence established the presence of traces of isotopes in the air masses of Kamchatka, indicating the testing of a nuclear charge. On the twenty-third, the first person in the United States publicly announced that the USSR had succeeded in testing the atomic bomb.

The Soviet Union refuted the Americans' statements with a TASS report, which spoke of large-scale construction on the territory of the USSR and large volumes of construction, including explosive, work, which attracted the attention of foreigners. The official statement that the USSR had atomic weapons was made only in 1950. Therefore, disputes still do not subside in the world, who first invented the atomic bomb.

Federal Agency for Education

TOMSK STATE UNIVERSITY OF CONTROL SYSTEMS AND RADIO ELECTRONICS (TUSUR)

Department of Radioelectronic Technologies and Environmental Monitoring (RETEM)

Course work

According to the discipline "TG and V"

Nuclear weapons: history of creation, device and damaging factors

Student gr.227

Tolmachev M.I.

Supervisor

Lecturer at the RETEM department,

Khorev I.E.

Tomsk 2010

Coursework ___ pages, 11 drawings, 6 sources.

In this course project, key moments in the history of the creation of nuclear weapons are considered. The main types and characteristics of atomic projectiles are shown.

The classification of nuclear explosions is given. Considered various forms release of energy during the explosion; types of its distribution and effects on humans.

The reactions occurring in the inner shells of nuclear projectiles have been studied. The damaging factors of nuclear explosions are described in detail.

The course work was done in Microsoft Word 2003 text editor.

2.4 Damaging factors of a nuclear explosion

2.4.4 Radioactive contamination

3.1 Basic elements of nuclear weapons

3.3 Thermonuclear bomb device


Introduction

The structure of the electron shell has been sufficiently studied to late XIX century, but there was very little knowledge about the structure of the atomic nucleus, and besides, they were contradictory.

In 1896, a phenomenon called radioactivity was discovered (from Latin word"radius" - a ray). This discovery played important role in the further radiation of the structure of atomic nuclei. Maria Sklodowska-Curie and Pierre

The Curies found that, in addition to uranium, there is also thorium, polonium and chemical compounds uranium with thorium has the same radiation as uranium.

Continuing their research, in 1898 they isolated a substance several million times more active than uranium from uranium ore, and called it radium, which means radiant. Substances that emit radiation like uranium or radium were called radioactive, and the phenomenon itself was called radioactivity.

In the 20th century, science took a radical step in the study of radioactivity and the application of the radioactive properties of materials.

Currently, 5 countries have nuclear weapons in their armament: the USA, Russia, Great Britain, France, China, and this list will be replenished in the coming years.

It is now difficult to assess the role of nuclear weapons. On the one hand, it is a powerful deterrent, on the other hand, it is the most effective tool strengthening peace and preventing military conflicts between powers.

Challenges ahead modern humanity- to prevent a nuclear arms race, because scientific knowledge can also serve humane, noble goals.

1. History of creation and development of nuclear weapons

In 1905, Albert Einstein published his special theory of relativity. According to this theory, the relationship between mass and energy is expressed by the equation E = mc 2 , which means that a given mass (m) is related to an amount of energy (E) equal to that mass multiplied by the square of the speed of light (c). A very small amount of matter is equivalent to a large amount of energy. For example, 1 kg of matter converted into energy would be equivalent to the energy released when 22 megatons of TNT exploded.

In 1938, as a result of experiments by German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, a uranium atom was broken into two approximately equal parts by bombarding uranium with neutrons. British physicist Robert Frisch explained how energy is released during the fission of the nucleus of an atom.

In early 1939, the French physicist Joliot-Curie concluded that a chain reaction was possible that would lead to an explosion of monstrous destructive power and that uranium could become an energy source, like an ordinary explosive.

This conclusion was the impetus for the development of nuclear weapons. Europe was on the eve of World War II, and the potential possession of such a powerful weapon pushed for its fastest creation, but the problem of the availability of a large amount of uranium ore for large-scale research became a brake.

The physicists of Germany, England, the USA, Japan worked on the creation of atomic weapons, realizing that without a sufficient amount of uranium ore it is impossible to work. In September 1940, the United States purchased a large amount of the required ore from Belgium under false documents, which allowed them to work on the creation of nuclear weapons in full swing.

nuclear weapon explosion projectile

Before the outbreak of World War II, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to US President Franklin Roosevelt. It allegedly talked about Nazi Germany's attempts to purify Uranium-235, which could lead them to build an atomic bomb. It has now become known that German scientists were very far from conducting a chain reaction. Their plans included the manufacture of a "dirty", highly radioactive bomb.

Be that as it may, the United States government decided to create an atomic bomb as soon as possible. This project went down in history as the "Manhattan Project". Over the next six years, from 1939 to 1945, more than two billion dollars were spent on the Manhattan Project. A huge uranium refinery was built at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. A purification method has been proposed in which a gas centrifuge separates light Uranium-235 from heavier Uranium-238.

On the territory of the United States, in the desert expanses of the state of New Mexico, in 1942, an American nuclear center was established. Many scientists worked on the project, but the main one was Robert Oppenheimer. Under his leadership were collected the best minds of that time, not only the United States and England, but almost all of Western Europe. A huge team worked on the creation of nuclear weapons, including 12 laureates Nobel Prize. Work in the laboratory did not stop for a minute.

In Europe, meanwhile, the Second World War, and Germany carried out mass bombing of the cities of England, which endangered the English atomic project “Tub Alloys”, and England voluntarily transferred its developments and leading scientists of the project to the USA, which allowed the USA to take a leading position in the development of nuclear physics (the creation of nuclear weapons).

On July 16, 1945, a bright flash lit up the sky over a plateau in the Jemez Mountains north of New Mexico. A characteristic cloud of radioactive dust, resembling a mushroom, rose to 30,000 feet. All that remains at the site of the explosion are fragments of green radioactive glass, which the sand has turned into. This was the beginning of the atomic era.

By the summer of 1945, the Americans managed to assemble two atomic bombs, called "Kid" and "Fat Man". The first bomb weighed 2722 kg and was loaded with enriched Uranium-235. "Fat Man" with a charge of Plutonium-239 with a capacity of more than 20 kt had a mass of 3175 kg.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, the "Kid" bomb was dropped over Hiroshima. On August 9, another bomb was dropped over the city of Nagasaki. The total loss of life and the scale of destruction from these bombings are characterized by the following figures: 300 thousand people died instantly from thermal radiation (temperature about 5000 degrees C) and a shock wave, another 200 thousand were injured, burned, irradiated. All buildings were completely destroyed on an area of ​​12 sq. km. These bombings shocked the whole world.

These 2 events are believed to have started the nuclear arms race.

But already in 1946, large deposits of uranium more than High Quality. A test site was built near the city of Semipalatinsk. And on August 29, 1949, the first Soviet nuclear device under the code name "RDS-1" was blown up at this test site. The event that took place at the Semipalatinsk test site informed the world about the creation of nuclear weapons in the USSR, which put an end to the American monopoly on the possession of weapons new to mankind.

2. Atomic weapons are weapons of mass destruction

2.1 Nuclear weapons

Nuclear or atomic weapons are explosive weapons based on the use of nuclear energy released during a nuclear fission chain reaction. heavy nuclei or thermonuclear reaction synthesis of light nuclei. Refers to weapons of mass destruction (WMD) along with biological and chemical weapons.

A nuclear explosion is the process of instantaneous release of a large amount of intranuclear energy in a limited volume.

The center of a nuclear explosion is the point at which a flash occurs or the center of the fireball is located, and the epicenter is the projection of the explosion center onto the earth or water surface.

Nuclear weapons are the most powerful and dangerous type of weapons of mass destruction, threatening all mankind with unprecedented destruction and destruction of millions of people.

If an explosion occurs on the ground or fairly close to its surface, then part of the energy of the explosion is transferred to the Earth's surface in the form of seismic vibrations. A phenomenon occurs, which in its features resembles an earthquake. As a result of such an explosion, seismic waves are formed, which propagate through the thickness of the earth over very long distances. The destructive effect of the wave is limited to a radius of several hundred meters.

As a result of the extremely high temperature of the explosion, a bright flash of light occurs, the intensity of which is hundreds of times greater than the intensity of the sun's rays falling on Earth. A flash releases a huge amount of heat and light. Light radiation causes spontaneous combustion of flammable materials and burns the skin of people within a radius of many kilometers.

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