Since 1918, research in nuclear physics has been conducted in the Soviet Union, preparing the test of the first atomic bomb in the USSR. In Leningrad, at the Radium Institute, in 1937 the cyclotron, the first in Europe, was launched. "In what year was the first atomic bomb test in the USSR?" - you ask. You will know the answer very soon.
In 1938, on November 25, a decree on the atomic nucleus was created by the decree of the Academy of Sciences. Its structure included Sergey Vavilov, Abram Alikhanov, Abram Iofe, Igor Kurchatov and others. Two years later, Isai Gurevich and Vitaliy Khlopin joined them. Nuclear research at that time was already carried out in more than 10 scientific institutes. At the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in the same year the Heavy Water Commission was organized, which later became known as the Isotope Commission. After reading this article, you will learn how the further preparation and testing of the first atomic bomb in the USSR was carried out.
Construction of a cyclotron in Leningrad, discovery of new uranium ores
In 1939, in September, the construction of the cyclotron began in Leningrad. In 1940, in April, it was decided to create a pilot plant that would produce 15 kg of heavy water per year. However, due to the outbreak of war at the time, these plans were not implemented. In May of that year, Yu. Khariton, Ya. Zeldovich, N. Semenov proposed their theory of development of a nuclear chain reaction in uranium. At the same time, work began on the discovery of new uranium ores. These were the first steps that ensured several years later the creation and testing of the atomic bomb in the USSR.
Physicists' vision of a future atomic bomb
Many physicists from the late 30s to the early 40s already had a rough idea of how it would look. The idea was to concentrate quickly enough in one place a certain amount (more critical mass) of material fissile under the influence of neutrons. After this, an avalanche-like increase in the number of atom decays should begin after this. That is, it will be a chain reaction, as a result of which a huge charge of energy will be released and a powerful explosion will occur.
Problems that had to be encountered when creating an atomic bomb
The first problem was to get fissile material in sufficient volume. In nature, the only substance of this kind that could be found is an uranium isotope with a mass number of 235 (that is, the total number of neutrons and protons in the nucleus), otherwise - uranium-235. The content of this isotope in natural uranium is not more than 0.71% (uranium-238 - 99.2%). Moreover, the content in the ore of a natural substance is at best 1%. Therefore, the separation of uranium-235 was a rather difficult task.
As it soon became clear, plutonium-239 is an alternative to uranium. It is almost never found in nature (it is 100 times less than uranium-235). In an acceptable concentration, it can be obtained in nuclear reactors by irradiating uranium-238 with neutrons. The construction of a reactor for this was also of considerable difficulty.
The third problem was that collecting the required amount of fissile material in one place was not easy. In the process of rapprochement of subcritical parts, even very fast, fission reactions begin to proceed in them. The energy released in this case may not allow the bulk of the atoms to participate in the fission process. Not having time to react, they will fly apart.
The invention of V. Maslov and V. Spinel
V. Maslov and V. Spinel from the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology in 1940 filed an application for the invention of ammunition based on the use of a chain reaction that triggers the spontaneous fission of uranium-235, its supercritical mass, which is created from several subcritical, separated by explosive, impermeable for neutrons and destroyed by detonation. Great doubt is caused by the operability of such a charge, but nevertheless, evidence for this invention was nevertheless obtained. However, this happened only in 1946.
Cannon scheme of Americans
For the first bombs, the Americans proposed using a cannon scheme that actually used a cannon barrel. With its help, one part of fissile material (subcritical) was shot at another. But it soon became clear that such a scheme for plutonium is not suitable due to the fact that the convergence rate is insufficient.
Construction of a cyclotron in Moscow
In 1941, April 15, SNK decided to begin construction of a powerful cyclotron in Moscow. However, after the start of the Great Patriotic War, almost all work in the field of nuclear physics was stopped, designed to bring one atomic bomb test closer to the USSR. At the front were many nuclear physicists. Others were reoriented to more urgent, as it seemed then, spheres.
Nuclear issue collection
Since 1939, the 1st Directorate of the NKVD and the GRU of the Red Army have been collecting information on the nuclear issue. In 1940, in October, D. Cairncross received the first message, which spoke about plans for creating an atomic bomb. This issue was considered in the British Committee on Science, in which Cairncross worked. In 1941, in the summer, a bomb project was approved called the Tube Elois. England at the beginning of the war was one of the world leaders in nuclear engineering. This situation was largely due to the help of German scientists who fled to this country with the advent of Hitler to power.
C. Fuchs, a member of the KKE, was one of them. He went in the fall of 1941 to the Soviet embassy, where he announced that he had important information about the powerful weapons created in England. S. Kramer and R. Kuchinskaya (radio operator Sonya) were allocated to contact him. The first radiograms sent to Moscow contained information about a special method for the separation of uranium isotopes, gas diffusion, as well as a plant under construction for this purpose in Wales. After six programs, communication with Fuchs was interrupted.
The test of the atomic bomb in the USSR, the date of which is widely known today, was prepared by other scouts. So, the Soviet intelligence officer in the United States Semenov (Twain) at the end of 1943 reported that E. Fermi in Chicago managed to carry out the first chain reaction. The source of this information was the physicist Pontecorvo. At the same time, foreign intelligence from the West received closed papers by Western scientists on atomic energy dating from 1940-1942. The information contained in them confirmed that great progress was made in the creation of the atomic bomb.
The wife of Konenkov (pictured below), a famous sculptor, worked with others on exploration. She became close to Einstein and Oppenheimer, major physicists, and had a long influence on them. L. Zarubina, another resident in the United States, was part of the circle of people of Oppenheimer and L. Szilard. With the help of these women, the USSR managed to introduce agents in Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and also the Chicago Laboratory - the largest nuclear research centers in America. Information on the atomic bomb in the United States was transmitted to Soviet intelligence in 1944 by the spouses Rosenberg, D. Greenglass, B. Pontecorvo, S. Sake, T. Hall, K. Fuchs.
In 1944, in early February, L. Beria, the People's Commissar of the NKVD, held a meeting of intelligence leaders. At it, a decision was made to coordinate the collection of information regarding the atomic problem, which came through the GRU of the Red Army and the NKVD. For this, department "C" was created. In 1945, on September 27, it was organized. P. Sudoplatov, Commissioner of the GB, headed this department.
Fuchs transmitted in January 1945 a description of the design of the atomic bomb. The intelligence, among other things, also obtained materials on the separation of uranium isotopes by the electromagnetic method, data on the operation of the first reactors, instructions for the production of plutonium and uranium bombs, data on the dimensions of the critical mass of plutonium and uranium, on the design of explosive lenses, on plutonium-240, on the sequence and the time of bomb assembly and production operations. The information also related to the method of bringing the bomb initiator into action, the construction of special plants for isotope separation. Diary entries were also received containing information about the first test bomb explosion in the United States in July 1945.
The information received through these channels accelerated and facilitated the task assigned to Soviet scientists. Western experts believed that in the USSR a bomb could only be created in 1954-1955. However, they were mistaken. The first atomic bomb test in the USSR took place in 1949, in August.
New stages of creating an atomic bomb
In April 1942, M. Pervukhin, the People’s Commissar of the Chemical Industry, was acquainted by order of Stalin with materials concerning work on the atomic bomb carried out abroad. To assess the information presented in the report, Pervukhin proposed the creation of a group of specialists. It included, on the recommendation of Ioffe, young scientists Kikoin, Alikhanov and Kurchatov.
In 1942, on November 27, a decree “On uranium mining” was issued by GKO. It provided for the creation of a special institute, as well as the beginning of work on the processing and extraction of raw materials, exploration. All this was supposed to be carried out in order to test the first atomic bomb in the USSR as soon as possible. The year 1943 was marked by the fact that the NCCM began mining and processing uranium ore in Tajikistan, at the Tabarsh mine. The plan was 4 tons per year of uranium salts.
Previously mobilized scientists at that time were recalled from the front. In the same 1943, on February 11, laboratory No. 2 of the Academy of Sciences was organized. Kurchatov was appointed its chief. She was supposed to coordinate the creation of the atomic bomb.
Soviet intelligence in 1944 received a reference book containing valuable information on the presence of uranium-graphite reactors and determining the parameters of the reactor. However, the necessary uranium for loading even a small experimental nuclear reactor was not yet in our country. In 1944, on September 28, the USSR government ordered the NCCM to donate uranium salts and uranium to a state fund. Laboratory No. 2 was entrusted with the task of storing them.
Work carried out in Bulgaria
A large group of specialists, led by V. Kravchenko, the head of the 4th special department of the NKVD, left in 1944, in November, to study the results of geological exploration in liberated Bulgaria. In the same year, on December 8, the GKO decided to transfer the processing and mining of uranium ores from NKMC to the 9th Directorate of the Main Directorate of the GMP NKVD. In 1945, in March, S. Egorov was appointed the head of the mining and metallurgical department of the 9th Directorate. Then, in January, NII-9 was organized to study uranium deposits, solve the problems of producing plutonium and metallic uranium, and process raw materials. By that time, about one and a half tons of uranium ore arrived from Bulgaria by that time.
Construction of a diffusion plant
Since 1945, since March, after information from the United States through the NKGB channels about the bomb scheme built on the principle of implosion (that is, compression of fissile material by exploding conventional explosives), work began on a circuit that had significant advantages over the cannon. In April 1945, V. Makhanev wrote a note to Beria. It said that in 1947 it was supposed to start up a diffusion plant located at Laboratory No. 2 to produce uranium-235. The productivity of this plant was to be approximately 25 kg of uranium per year. That should have been enough for two bombs. For the American, it actually took 65 kg of uranium-235.
Involvement of German scientists in research
On May 5, 1945, during the battles for Berlin, property was discovered that belonged to the Physical Institute of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society . A special commission headed by A. Zavenyagin was sent to Germany on May 9. Her task was to find the scientists who worked there on the atomic bomb, to collect materials on the uranium problem. Together with their families, a significant group of German scientists was taken out to the USSR. These included Nobel laureates N. Riel and G. Herz, professors Gayb, M. von Arden, P. Thyssen, G. Pose, M. Volmer, R. Deppel and others.
The creation of the atomic bomb is delayed
To produce plutonium-239, it was necessary to build a nuclear reactor. Even for the experimental one, about 36 tons of metallic uranium, 500 tons of graphite and 9 tons of uranium dioxide were needed. By August 1943, the graphite problem was resolved. Its release was established in May 1944 at the Moscow Electrode Plant. However, the required amount of uranium in the country was not by the end of 1945.
Stalin wanted the test of the first atomic bomb in the USSR to happen as soon as possible. The year by which it was to be realized was originally 1948 (until spring). However, by this time there were not even materials for its production. A new term was appointed on February 8, 1945 by a government decree. The creation of the atomic bomb was postponed until March 1, 1949.
The final stages that prepared the test of the first atomic bomb in the USSR
The event, which had been striving for so long, happened a little later than the re-scheduled time. The first atomic bomb test in the USSR took place in the year 1949, as planned, but not in March, but in August.
In 1948, on June 19, the first industrial reactor ("A") was launched. Plant B was built to extract the accumulated plutonium from nuclear fuel. The irradiated uranium blocks were dissolved and chemically separated from plutonium from uranium. Then the solution was further purified from fission products in order to reduce its radiation activity. At the B factory in April 1949, plutonium bomb parts began to be manufactured using the NII-9 technology. The first heavy water research reactor was launched at the same time. With many accidents, production was being mastered. With the elimination of their consequences, cases of over-exposure of personnel were observed. However, at that time they did not pay attention to such trifles. Most important was the first test of the atomic bomb in the USSR (its date was 1949, August 29).
In July, a set of charge parts was ready. A group of physicists led by Flerov went to the plant to conduct physical measurements. A group of theorists led by Zeldovich was sent to process the measurement results, as well as to calculate the probability of an incomplete gap and the efficiency values.
Thus, the first atomic bomb test in the USSR was carried out in the year 1949. On August 5, the commission accepted a charge of plutonium and sent it to KB-11 with a letter train. Here, by this time, the necessary work was almost completed. Control charge assembly was carried out in KB-11 on the night of August 10-11. The device was then dismantled, and its parts were packed for shipment to the landfill. As already mentioned, the first test of the atomic bomb in the USSR took place on August 29. The Soviet bomb was thus created in 2 years and 8 months.
First atomic bomb test
In the USSR in 1949, on August 29, a nuclear charge test was conducted at the Semipalatinsk test site. On the tower was a device. The power of the explosion was 22 kt. The design of the charge used was repeated by the “Fat Man” from the USA, and the electronic filling was developed by Soviet scientists. The multilayer structure was an atomic charge. In it, using compression by a spherical converging detonation wave, plutonium was transferred to a critical state.
Some features of the first atomic bomb
5 kg of plutonium was located in the center of the charge. The substance was established in the form of two hemispheres surrounded by a shell of uranium-238. It served to contain the nucleus that swells during a chain reaction in order to react as much of the plutonium as possible. In addition, it was used as a reflector, as well as a neutron moderator. Tamper was surrounded by a shell made of aluminum. It served for uniform compression by a shock wave of a nuclear charge.
The installation of the unit, which contained fissile material, for safety purposes, was carried out immediately before the use of charge. To do this, there was a special through conical hole, closed with a stopper of explosives. And in the inner and outer cases there were holes that were closed by covers. The nuclear fission of approximately 1 kg of plutonium was due to the power of the explosion. The remaining 4 kg did not have time to react and sprayed uselessly when the first atomic bomb test was carried out in the USSR, the date of which you now know.Many new ideas for improving charges arose during the implementation of this program. They concerned, in particular, increasing the utilization rate of the material, as well as reducing weight and dimensions. Compared with the first, the new models have become more compact, powerful and elegant.
So, the first atomic bomb test in the USSR took place in 1949, on August 29. It served as the beginning of further developments in this area, which are ongoing to this day. The test of the atomic bomb in the USSR (1949) was an important event in the history of our country, laying the foundation for its status as a nuclear power.
In 1953, at the same Semipalatinsk test site, the first hydrogen bomb test in the history of Russia took place . Its power was already 400 ct. Compare the first tests of the atomic bomb and hydrogen bomb in the USSR: power 22 kt and 400 kt. However, this was only the beginning.
On September 14, 1954, the first military exercises were carried out at the Totsky training ground , during which an atomic bomb was used. They received the name "Operation" Snowball "." The test of the atomic bomb in 1954 in the USSR, according to information declassified in 1993, was carried out, inter alia, to find out how radiation affects a person. The participants in this experiment signed up that they would not divulge information about exposure for 25 years.