Atomic bomb: composition, combat characteristics and purpose of creation. Who invented the atomic bomb When did nuclear weapons appear?

The development of Soviet nuclear weapons began with the mining of radium samples in the early 1930s. In 1939, Soviet physicists Yuliy Khariton and Yakov Zeldovich calculated the chain reaction of fission of the nuclei of heavy atoms. The following year, scientists from the Ukrainian Institute of Physics and Technology sent applications to create atomic bomb, as well as methods for producing uranium-235. For the first time, researchers have 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 visited a variety of authorities, was ultimately rejected. The final word remained with the director of the Radium Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Academician Vitaly Khlopin: “... the application has no real basis. Besides this, there is essentially a lot of fantastic stuff in it... Even if it were possible to implement a chain reaction, the energy that will be released would be better used to power engines, for example, airplanes.”

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

• Vladimir Semyonovich Spinel
• Wikimedia Commons

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

“I think that with the capabilities 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 successful American schemes for creating a plutonium bomb, obtained by Soviet intelligence.

Atomic race

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

The head of strategic intelligence, Lavrentiy 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 the Soviet Union in September 1939. In the early 1940s, both politicians and scientists realized the reality of obtaining a nuclear bomb, and also that its appearance in the enemy's arsenal would jeopardize the security of other powers.

In 1941, the Soviet government received the first intelligence data from the USA and Great Britain, where active work on creating superweapons had already begun. The main informant was the Soviet “atomic spy” Klaus Fuchs, a physicist from Germany involved in work on the nuclear programs of the United States and Great Britain.

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

Academician Pyotr Kapitsa, speaking on October 12, 1941 at an anti-fascist meeting of scientists, said: “One of important means modern warfare are explosives. Science indicates the fundamental possibilities of increasing explosive force by 1.5-2 times... Theoretical calculations show that if modern powerful bomb can, for example, destroy an entire block, then an atomic bomb of even a small size, if feasible, could easily destroy a large capital city with several million people. My personal opinion is that the technical difficulties standing in the way of using intra-atomic energy are still very great. This matter is still doubtful, but it is very likely that there are great opportunities here.”

In September 1942, the Soviet government adopted a decree “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 GKO decision on the program of work to create an atomic bomb. At first, the deputy chairman of the State Defense Committee, Vyacheslav Molotov, was entrusted with leading the important task. It was he who had to find a scientific director for the new laboratory.

Molotov himself, in an entry 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 a person who could create the atomic bomb. The security officers gave me a list of reliable physicists that I could rely on, and I chose. He called Kapitsa, the academician, to his place. He said that we are not ready for this and that the atomic bomb is not a weapon of this war, but a matter of the future. They asked Joffe - he also had a somewhat unclear attitude towards this. In short, I had the youngest and still unknown Kurchatov, he was not allowed to move. I called him, we talked, he impressed me good impression. But he said he still has a lot of uncertainty. Then I decided to give him our intelligence materials - the intelligence officers had done a very important job. Kurchatov sat in the Kremlin for several days, with me, over these materials.”

Over the next couple of weeks, Kurchatov thoroughly studied the data received by intelligence and drew up an expert opinion: “The materials are of enormous, 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, it was decided to create the KB-11 design bureau for the needs of this laboratory. The top-secret facility was located on the territory of the former Sarov Monastery, several 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 designs of the US plutonium bomb, which was successfully tested in 1945. However, since the production of plutonium in the Soviet Union had not yet been carried out, physicists at the initial stage used uranium mined in Czechoslovakian mines, as well as in the territories of 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 placed 10 kilograms of radioactive metal. The USSR managed to accumulate this amount of substance by June 1949. The head of the experiment, Kurchatov, informed the curator of the atomic project, Lavrenty Beria, about his readiness 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, specialists 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.

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

To a prominent scientist in the field of atomic law, Abram Ioyrysh, Kurchatov’s condition seems similar to a religious experience: “Kurchatov rushed out of the casemate, ran up the earthen rampart and shouting “She!” waved his arms widely, repeating: “She, she!” - and enlightenment spread across his face. The explosion column 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 hand, forcibly dragged him into the casemate and closed the door.” The author of Kurchatov’s biography, 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 in its place only a crater remained. A powerful shock wave threw highway bridges a couple of tens of meters away, and nearby cars scattered across the open spaces almost 70 meters from the explosion site.

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

One day, after another test, Kurchatov was asked: “Aren’t you worried about the moral side of this invention?”

“You asked a legitimate question,” he replied. “But I think it’s addressed incorrectly.” It is better to address it not to us, but to those who unleashed these forces... What is scary is not physics, but the adventurous game, not science, but its use by scoundrels... When science makes a breakthrough and opens up the possibility of actions affecting millions of people, the need arises rethink moral norms to bring these actions under control. But nothing like that happened. Quite 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 a tool of blackmail and the main decisive factor in politics. Do you really think that 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: the weapons we created are instruments of violence, but we were forced to create them in order to avoid more disgusting violence! — the answer of the scientist is described in the book “A-bomb” by Abram Ioyrysh and nuclear physicist Igor Morokhov.

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 a model of the bomb in the nuclear weapons museum in Sarov (formerly Arzamas-16).

The investigation took place in April-May 1954 in Washington and was called, in the American manner, “hearings.”
Physicists (with a capital P!) participated in the hearings, but for the scientific world of America the conflict was unprecedented: not a dispute about priority, not a behind-the-scenes struggle scientific schools and not even the traditional confrontation between a forward-looking genius and a crowd of mediocre envious people. The key word in the proceedings was “loyalty.” The accusation of “disloyalty,” which acquired a negative, menacing meaning, entailed punishment: deprivation of access to top-secret work. The action took place at the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Main characters:

Robert Oppenheimer, native New Yorker, pioneer quantum physics in the USA, scientific director of the Manhattan Project, “father of the atomic bomb”, successful scientific manager and refined intellectual, after 1945 a national hero of America...

“I am not the simplest person,” American physicist Isidor Isaac Rabi once remarked. “But compared to Oppenheimer, I am very, very simple.” Robert Oppenheimer was one of the central figures twentieth century, the very “complexity” of which absorbed the political and ethical contradictions of the country.

During World War II, the brilliant physicist Azulius Robert Oppenheimer led the development of American nuclear scientists to create the first atomic bomb in human history. The scientist led a solitary and secluded lifestyle, and this gave rise to suspicions of treason.

Atomic weapons are the result of all previous developments of science and technology. Discoveries that are directly related to its emergence were made at the end of the 19th century. The research of A. Becquerel, Pierre Curie and Marie Sklodowska-Curie, E. Rutherford and others played a huge role in revealing the secrets of the atom.

At the beginning of 1939, the French physicist Joliot-Curie concluded that a chain reaction was possible that would lead to an explosion of monstrous destructive force and that uranium could become a source of energy, like an ordinary explosive. This conclusion became the impetus for developments in the creation of nuclear weapons.

Europe was on the eve of World War II, and the potential possession of such powerful weapon pushed militaristic circles to quickly create it, but the problem of the availability of a large amount of uranium ore for large-scale research was a brake. Above creation atomic weapons Physicists from Germany, England, the USA, and Japan worked, realizing that without a sufficient amount of uranium ore it was impossible to carry out work. In September 1940, the USA purchased a large amount of the required ore using false documents from Belgium, which allowed them to carry out work on the creation of nuclear weapons in full swing .

From 1939 to 1945, more than two billion dollars were spent on the Manhattan Project. A huge uranium purification plant was built in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. H.C. Urey and Ernest O. Lawrence (inventor of the cyclotron) proposed a purification method based on the principle of gas diffusion followed by magnetic separation of the two isotopes. A gas centrifuge separated the light Uranium-235 from the heavier Uranium-238.

On the territory of the United States, in Los Alamos, in the desert expanses of New Mexico, an American nuclear center was created in 1942. Many scientists worked on the project, but the main one was Robert Oppenheimer. Under his leadership, the best minds of that time were gathered not only in the USA and England, but in almost all of Western Europe. A huge team worked on the creation of nuclear weapons, including 12 Nobel Prize laureates. Work in Los Alamos, where the laboratory was located, did not stop for a minute. In Europe, meanwhile, the Second World War, and Germany carried out massive bombings of English cities, which endangered the English atomic project “Tub Alloys”, and England voluntarily transferred its developments and leading scientists of the project to the United States, which allowed the United States to take a leading position in the development of nuclear physics (the creation of nuclear weapons).

“The Father of the Atomic Bomb,” he was at the same time an ardent opponent of American nuclear policy. Bearing the title of one of the most outstanding physicists of his time, he enjoyed studying the mysticism of ancient Indian books. A communist, a traveler, and a staunch American patriot, a very spiritual man, he was nevertheless willing to betray his friends in order to protect himself from the attacks of anti-communists. The scientist who developed the plan to cause the greatest damage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki cursed himself for the “innocent blood on his hands.”

Writing about this controversial man is not an easy task, but it is an interesting one, and the twentieth century is marked by a number of books about him. However rich life The scientist continues to attract biographers.

Oppenheimer was born in New York in 1903 into a family of wealthy and educated Jews. Oppenheimer was brought up in a love of painting, music, and in an atmosphere of intellectual curiosity. In 1922, he entered Harvard University and graduated with honors in just three years, his main subject being chemistry. Over the next few years, the precocious young man traveled to several European countries, where he worked with physicists who were studying the problems of studying atomic phenomena in the light of new theories. Just a year after graduating from university, Oppenheimer published scientific work, which showed how deeply he understands new methods. Soon he, together with the famous Max Born, developed the most important part of quantum theory, known as the Born-Oppenheimer method. In 1927, his outstanding doctoral dissertation brought him worldwide fame.

In 1928 he worked at the Universities of Zurich and Leiden. The same year he returned to the USA. From 1929 to 1947 Oppenheimer taught at University of California and the California Institute of Technology. From 1939 to 1945, he actively participated in the work on creating an atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project; heading the Los Alamos laboratory specially created for this purpose.

In 1929, Oppenheimer, a rising scientific star, accepted offers from two of several universities vying for the right to invite him. He taught the spring semester at the vibrant, young California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and the fall and winter semesters at the University of California, Berkeley, where he became the first professor of quantum mechanics. In fact, the polymath had to adjust for some time, gradually reducing the level of discussion to the capabilities of his students. In 1936, he fell in love with Jean Tatlock, a restless and moody young woman whose passionate idealism found outlet in communist activism. Like many thoughtful people of the time, Oppenheimer explored the ideas of the left as a possible alternative, although he did not join the Communist Party, as his younger brother, sister-in-law and many of his friends did. His interest in politics, like his ability to read Sanskrit, was a natural result of his constant pursuit of knowledge. In his own words, he was also deeply alarmed by the explosion of anti-Semitism in fascist Germany and Spain and invested $1,000 a year out of his $15,000 annual salary in projects related to the activities of communist groups. After meeting Kitty Harrison, who became his wife in 1940, Oppenheimer broke up with Jean Tatlock and moved away from her circle of left-wing friends.

In 1939, the United States learned that in preparation for global war Hitler's Germany discovered the fission of the atomic nucleus. Oppenheimer and other scientists immediately realized that the German physicists would try to create a controlled chain reaction that could be the key to creating a weapon far more destructive than any that existed at that time. Enlisting the help of the great scientific genius, Albert Einstein, concerned scientists warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the danger in a famous letter. In authorizing funding for projects aimed at creating untested weapons, the president acted in strict secrecy. Ironically, many of the world's leading scientists, forced to flee their homeland, worked together with American scientists in laboratories scattered throughout the country. One part of the university groups explored the possibility of creating a nuclear reactor, others took up the problem of separating uranium isotopes necessary to release energy in a chain reaction. Oppenheimer, who was previously busy theoretical problems, proposed to organize a wide range of work only at the beginning of 1942.

The US Army's atomic bomb program was codenamed Project Manhattan and was led by 46-year-old Colonel Leslie R. Groves, a career military officer. Groves, who characterized the scientists working on the atomic bomb as "an expensive bunch of nuts," however, acknowledged that Oppenheimer had a hitherto untapped ability to control his fellow debaters when the atmosphere became tense. The physicist proposed that all the scientists be brought together in one laboratory in the quiet provincial town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, in an area he knew well. By March 1943, the boarding school for boys had been turned into a strictly guarded secret center, with Oppenheimer becoming its scientific director. By insisting on the free exchange of information between scientists, who were strictly forbidden to leave the center, Oppenheimer created an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect, which contributed to the amazing success of his work. Without sparing himself, he remained the head of all areas of this complex project, although his personal life suffered greatly from this. But for a mixed group of scientists - among whom there were more than a dozen then or future Nobel laureates and of whom it was a rare individual who did not have a strong personality - Oppenheimer was an unusually dedicated leader and a keen diplomat. Most of them would agree that the lion's share of the credit for the project's ultimate success belongs to him. By December 30, 1944, Groves, who had by then become a general, could say with confidence that the two billion dollars spent would produce a bomb ready for action by August 1 of the following year. But when Germany admitted defeat in May 1945, many of the researchers working at Los Alamos began to think about using new weapons. After all, Japan would probably have soon capitulated even without the atomic bombing. Should the United States become the first country in the world to use such a terrible device? Harry S. Truman, who became president after Roosevelt's death, appointed a committee to study possible consequences use of the atomic bomb, which included Oppenheimer. Experts decided to recommend dropping an atomic bomb without warning on a large Japanese military installation. Oppenheimer's consent was also obtained.
All these worries would, of course, be moot if the bomb had not gone off. The world's first atomic bomb was tested on July 16, 1945, approximately 80 kilometers from the air force base in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The device being tested, named "Fat Man" for its convex shape, was attached to a steel tower installed in a desert area. At exactly 5:30 a.m., a remote-controlled detonator detonated the bomb. With an echoing roar, a giant purple-green-orange fireball shot into the sky over an area 1.6 kilometers in diameter. The earth shook from the explosion, the tower disappeared. A white column of smoke quickly rose to the sky and began to gradually expand, taking on the terrifying shape of a mushroom at an altitude of about 11 kilometers. The first nuclear explosion shocked scientific and military observers near the test site and turned their heads. But Oppenheimer remembered the lines from the Indian epic poem "Bhagavad Gita": "I will become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Until the end of his life, satisfaction from scientific success was always mixed with a sense of responsibility for the consequences.
On the morning of August 6, 1945, there was a clear, cloudless sky over Hiroshima. As before, the approach of two American planes from the east (one of them was called Enola Gay) at an altitude of 10-13 km did not cause alarm (since they appeared in the sky of Hiroshima every day). One of the planes dived and dropped something, and then both planes turned and flew away. The dropped object slowly descended by parachute and suddenly exploded at an altitude of 600 m above the ground. It was the Baby bomb.

Three days after "Little Boy" was blown up in Hiroshima, exact copy The first "Fat Man" was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. On August 15, Japan, whose resolve was finally broken by these new weapons, signed an unconditional surrender. However, the voices of skeptics had already begun to be heard, and Oppenheimer himself predicted two months after Hiroshima that “mankind will curse the names Los Alamos and Hiroshima.”

The whole world was shocked by the explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tellingly, Oppenheimer managed to combine his worries about testing a bomb on civilians and the joy that the weapon had finally been tested.

Nevertheless, the following year he accepted an appointment as chairman of the scientific council of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), thereby becoming the most influential adviser to the government and military on nuclear issues. While the West and the Stalin-led Soviet Union prepared in earnest for the Cold War, each side focused its attention on the arms race. Although many of the Manhattan Project scientists did not support the idea of ​​creating a new weapon, former Oppenheimer collaborators Edward Teller and Ernest Lawrence believed that US national security required speedy development hydrogen bomb. Oppenheimer was horrified. From his point of view, the two nuclear powers were already confronting each other, like “two scorpions in a jar, each capable of killing the other, but only at the risk of his own life.” With the proliferation of new weapons, wars would no longer have winners and losers - only victims. And the “father of the atomic bomb” made a public statement that he was against the development of the hydrogen bomb. Always uncomfortable with Oppenheimer and clearly jealous of his achievements, Teller began to make efforts to head the new project, implying that Oppenheimer should no longer be involved in the work. He told FBI investigators that his rival was using his authority to keep scientists from working on the hydrogen bomb, and revealed the secret that Oppenheimer suffered from bouts of severe depression in his youth. When President Truman agreed to fund the hydrogen bomb in 1950, Teller could celebrate victory.

In 1954, Oppenheimer's enemies launched a campaign to remove him from power, which they succeeded after a month-long search for "black spots" in his personal biography. As a result, a show case was organized in which many influential political and scientific figures spoke out against Oppenheimer. As Albert Einstein later put it: “Oppenheimer’s problem was that he loved a woman who didn’t love him: the US government.”

By allowing Oppenheimer's talent to flourish, America doomed him to destruction.

Oppenheimer is known not only as the creator of the American atomic bomb. He is the author of many works on quantum mechanics, the theory of relativity, elementary particle physics, and theoretical astrophysics. In 1927 he developed the theory of interaction of free electrons with atoms. Together with Born, he created the theory of the structure of diatomic molecules. In 1931, he and P. Ehrenfest formulated a theorem, the application of which to the nitrogen nucleus showed that the proton-electron hypothesis of the structure of nuclei leads to a number of contradictions with the known properties of nitrogen. Investigated the internal conversion of g-rays. In 1937 he developed the cascade theory of cosmic showers, in 1938 he made the first calculation of the model neutron star, predicted the existence of “black holes” in 1939.

Oppenheimer owns a number of popular books, including Science and the Common Understanding (1954), The Open Mind (1955), Some Reflections on Science and Culture (1960) . Oppenheimer died in Princeton on February 18, 1967.

Work on nuclear projects in the USSR and the USA began simultaneously. In August 1942, the secret “Laboratory No. 2” began working in one of the buildings in the courtyard of Kazan University. Igor Kurchatov was appointed its leader.

IN Soviet times it was argued that the USSR solved its atomic problem completely independently, and Kurchatov was considered the “father” of the domestic atomic bomb. Although there were rumors about some secrets stolen from the Americans. And only in the 90s, 50 years later, one of the main characters then, Yuli Khariton, spoke about the significant role of intelligence in accelerating the lagging Soviet project. And American scientific and technical results were obtained by Klaus Fuchs, who arrived in the English group.

Information from abroad helped the country's leadership make a difficult decision - to begin work on nuclear weapons during a difficult war. The reconnaissance allowed our physicists to save time and helped avoid a misfire at the first atomic test which had enormous political significance.

In 1939, a chain reaction of fission of uranium-235 nuclei was discovered, accompanied by the release of colossal energy. Soon after, articles on nuclear physics began to disappear from the pages of scientific journals. This could indicate the real prospect of creating an atomic explosive and weapons based on it.

After the discovery by Soviet physicists of the spontaneous fission of uranium-235 nuclei and the determination of the critical mass, a corresponding directive was sent to the residency on the initiative of the head of the scientific and technological revolution L. Kvasnikov.

In the Russian FSB (formerly the KGB of the USSR), 17 volumes of archival file No. 13676, which document who and how recruited US citizens to work for Soviet intelligence, are buried under the heading “keep forever.” Only a few of the top leadership of the USSR KGB had access to the materials of this case, the secrecy of which was only recently lifted. The first information about the work to create an American atomic bomb Soviet intelligence received in the fall of 1941. And already in March 1942, extensive information about the research ongoing in the USA and England fell on I.V. Stalin’s desk. According to Yu. B. Khariton, in that dramatic period it was safer to use the bomb design already tested by the Americans for our first explosion. "Considering state interests, any other solution was then unacceptable. The merit of Fuchs and our other assistants abroad is undoubted. However, we implemented the American scheme during the first test not so much for technical reasons as for political reasons.

The message that the Soviet Union had mastered the secret of nuclear weapons caused the US ruling circles to want to start a preventive war as quickly as possible. The Troian plan was developed, which envisaged starting fighting January 1, 1950. At that time, the United States had 840 strategic bombers in combat units, 1,350 in reserve, and over 300 atomic bombs.

A test site was built in the area of ​​Semipalatinsk. At exactly 7:00 a.m. on August 29, 1949, the first Soviet nuclear device, codenamed RDS-1, was detonated at this test site.

The Troyan plan, according to which atomic bombs were to be dropped on 70 cities of the USSR, was thwarted due to the threat of a retaliatory strike. The event that took place at the Semipalatinsk test site informed the world about the creation of nuclear weapons in the USSR.

Foreign intelligence not only attracted the attention of the country's leadership to the problem of creating atomic weapons in the West and thereby initiated similar work in our country. Thanks to the information foreign intelligence, according to the recognition of academicians A. Aleksandrov, Yu. Khariton and others, I. Kurchatov did not make big mistakes, we managed to avoid dead-end directions in the creation of atomic weapons and create an atomic bomb in the USSR in a shorter time, in just three years, while the USA They spent four years on this, spending five billion dollars on its creation.
As he noted in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper on December 8, 1992, the first Soviet atomic charge was manufactured according to the American model with the help of information received from K. Fuchs. According to the academician, when government awards were presented to participants in the Soviet atomic project, Stalin, satisfied that there was no American monopoly in this area, remarked: “If we had been one to a year and a half late, we would probably have tried this charge on ourselves.” ".

Nuclear weapons - weapons mass destruction explosive action, based on the use of fission energy of heavy nuclei of some isotopes of uranium and plutonium, or in thermonuclear reactions of synthesis of light nuclei of hydrogen isotopes of deuterium and tritium into heavier ones, for example, nuclei of helium isotopes.

Warheads of missiles and torpedoes, aircraft and depth charges, artillery shells and mines can be equipped with nuclear charges. Based on their power, nuclear weapons are divided into ultra-small (less than 1 kt), small (1-10 kt), medium (10-100 kt), large (100-1000 kt) and super-large (more than 1000 kt). Depending on the tasks being solved, it is possible to use nuclear weapons in the form of underground, ground, air, underwater and surface explosions. The characteristics of the destructive effect of nuclear weapons on the population are determined not only by the power of the ammunition and the type of explosion, but also by the type of nuclear device. Depending on the charge, they are distinguished: atomic weapons, which are based on the fission reaction; thermo nuclear weapon- when using a synthesis reaction; combined charges; neutron weapons.

The only fissile substance found in nature in appreciable quantities is the isotope of uranium with a nuclear mass of 235 atomic mass units (uranium-235). The content of this isotope in natural uranium is only 0.7%. The remainder is uranium-238. Since the chemical properties of the isotopes are exactly the same, separating uranium-235 from natural uranium requires a rather complex process of isotope separation. The result can be highly enriched uranium containing about 94% uranium-235, which is suitable for use in nuclear weapons.

Fissile substances can be produced artificially, and the least difficult from a practical point of view is the production of plutonium-239, which is formed as a result of the capture of a neutron by a uranium-238 nucleus (and the subsequent chain of radioactive decays of intermediate nuclei). A similar process can be carried out in a nuclear reactor operating on natural or slightly enriched uranium. In the future, plutonium can be separated from spent reactor fuel in the process of chemical reprocessing of the fuel, which is noticeably simpler than the isotope separation process carried out when producing weapons-grade uranium.

To create nuclear explosive devices, other fissile substances can be used, for example, uranium-233, obtained by irradiation of thorium-232 in a nuclear reactor. However, only uranium-235 and plutonium-239 have found practical use, primarily due to the relative ease of obtaining these materials.

The possibility of practical use of the energy released during nuclear fission is due to the fact that the fission reaction can have a chain, self-sustaining nature. Each fission event produces approximately two secondary neutrons, which, when captured by the nuclei of the fissile material, can cause them to fission, which in turn leads to the formation of even more neutrons. When special conditions are created, the number of neutrons, and therefore fission events, increases from generation to generation.

The first nuclear explosive device was detonated by the United States on July 16, 1945 in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The device was a plutonium bomb that used a directed explosion to create criticality. The power of the explosion was about 20 kt. In the USSR, the first nuclear explosive device similar to the American one exploded on August 29, 1949.

The history of the creation of nuclear weapons.

In early 1939, the French physicist Frédéric Joliot-Curie concluded that a chain reaction was possible that would lead to an explosion of monstrous destructive force and that uranium could become a source of energy as an ordinary explosive. This conclusion became the impetus for developments in the creation of nuclear weapons. Europe was on the eve of the Second World War, and the potential possession of such powerful weapons gave any owner enormous advantages. Physicists from Germany, England, the USA, and Japan worked on the creation of atomic weapons.

By the summer of 1945, the Americans managed to assemble two atomic bombs, called “Baby” and “Fat Man”. The first bomb weighed 2,722 kg and was filled with enriched Uranium-235.

The "Fat Man" bomb with a charge of Plutonium-239 with a power of more than 20 kt had a mass of 3175 kg.

US President G. Truman became the first political leader to decide to use nuclear bombs. The first targets for nuclear strikes were Japanese cities (Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kokura, Niigata). From a military point of view, there was no need for such bombing of densely populated Japanese cities.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, there was a clear, cloudless sky over Hiroshima. As before, the approach of two American planes from the east (one of them was called Enola Gay) at an altitude of 10-13 km did not cause alarm (since they appeared in the sky of Hiroshima every day). One of the planes dived and dropped something, and then both planes turned and flew away. The dropped object slowly descended by parachute and suddenly exploded at an altitude of 600 m above the ground. It was the Baby bomb. On August 9, another bomb was dropped over the city of Nagasaki.

The total human losses 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 the shock wave, another 200 thousand were injured, burned, and radiation sickness. On an area of ​​12 sq. km, all buildings were completely destroyed. In Hiroshima alone, out of 90 thousand buildings, 62 thousand were destroyed.

After the American atomic bombings, on August 20, 1945, by order of Stalin, a special committee on atomic energy was formed under the leadership of L. Beria. The committee included prominent scientists A.F. Ioffe, P.L. Kapitsa and I.V. Kurchatov. A communist by conviction, scientist Klaus Fuchs, a prominent employee of the American nuclear center in Los Alamos, provided a great service to Soviet nuclear scientists. During 1945-1947, he transmitted information on practical and theoretical issues of creating atomic and hydrogen bombs four times, which accelerated their appearance in the USSR.

In 1946 - 1948, the nuclear industry was created in the USSR. A test site was built in the area of ​​Semipalatinsk. In August 1949, the first Soviet nuclear device was detonated there. Before this, US President Henry Truman was informed that the Soviet Union had mastered the secret of nuclear weapons, but the Soviet Union would not create a nuclear bomb until 1953. This message caused the US ruling circles to want to start a preventive war as quickly as possible. The Troyan plan was developed, which envisaged the start of hostilities at the beginning of 1950. At that time, the United States had 840 strategic bombers and over 300 atomic bombs.

The damaging factors of a nuclear explosion are: shock wave, light radiation, penetrating radiation, radioactive contamination and electromagnetic pulse.

Shock wave. The main damaging factor of a nuclear explosion. About 60% of the energy of a nuclear explosion is spent on it. It is an area of ​​sharp air compression, spreading in all directions from the explosion site. The damaging effect of a shock wave is characterized by the magnitude of excess pressure. Excess pressure is the difference between the maximum pressure at the shock wave front and the normal atmospheric pressure ahead of it. It is measured in kilopascals - 1 kPa = 0.01 kgf/cm2.

With excess pressure of 20-40 kPa, unprotected people can get mild injuries. Exposure to a shock wave with an excess pressure of 40-60 kPa leads to moderate damage. Severe injuries occur when excess pressure exceeds 60 kPa and are characterized by severe contusions of the entire body, fractures of the limbs, and ruptures of internal parenchymal organs. Extremely severe injuries, often fatal, are observed at excess pressure above 100 kPa.

Light radiation is a stream of radiant energy, including visible ultraviolet and infrared rays.

Its source is a luminous area formed by the hot products of the explosion. Light radiation spreads almost instantly and lasts, depending on the power of the nuclear explosion, up to 20 s. Its strength is such that, despite its short duration, it can cause fires, deep skin burns and damage to the organs of vision in people.

Light radiation does not penetrate through opaque materials, so any barrier that can create a shadow protects against the direct action of light radiation and prevents burns.

Light radiation is significantly weakened in dusty (smoky) air, fog, and rain.

Penetrating radiation.

This is a stream of gamma radiation and neutrons. The impact lasts 10-15 s. The primary effect of radiation is realized in physical, physicochemical and chemical processes with the formation of chemically active free radicals (H, OH, HO2) with high oxidizing and reducing properties. Subsequently, various peroxide compounds are formed, inhibiting the activity of some enzymes and increasing others, which play an important role in the processes of autolysis (self-dissolution) of body tissues. The appearance in the blood of decay products of radiosensitive tissues and pathological metabolism when exposed to high doses of ionizing radiation is the basis for the formation of toxemia - poisoning of the body associated with the circulation of toxins in the blood. Of primary importance in the development of radiation injuries are disturbances in the physiological regeneration of cells and tissues, as well as changes in the functions of regulatory systems.

Radioactive contamination of the area

Its main sources are nuclear fission products and radioactive isotopes formed as a result of the acquisition of radioactive properties by the elements from which nuclear weapons are made and those that make up the soil. A radioactive cloud is formed from them. It rises to a height of many kilometers, and from air masses transported over considerable distances. Radioactive particles falling from the cloud to the ground form a zone of radioactive contamination (trace), the length of which can reach several hundred kilometers. Radioactive substances pose the greatest danger in the first hours after deposition, since their activity is highest during this period.

Electromagnetic pulse .

This is a short-term electromagnetic field that occurs during the explosion of a nuclear weapon as a result of the interaction of gamma radiation and neutrons emitted during a nuclear explosion with atoms of the environment. The consequence of its impact is burnout or breakdown of individual elements of radio-electronic and electrical equipment. People can only be harmed if they come into contact with wire lines at the time of the explosion.

A type of nuclear weapon is neutron and thermonuclear weapons.

Neutron weapons are small-sized thermonuclear ammunition with a power of up to 10 kt, designed primarily to destroy enemy personnel through the action of neutron radiation. Neutron weapons are classified as tactical nuclear weapons.

Federal Agency for Education

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

Department of Radioelectronic Technologies and Environmental Monitoring (RETEM)

Course work

In the discipline "TG and V"

Nuclear weapons: history of creation, design and damaging factors

Student gr.227

Tolmachev M.I.

Supervisor

Lecturer at the Department of Electronic Technologies and Electronics,

Khorev I.E.

Tomsk 2010

Coursework ___ pages, 11 pictures, 6 sources.

This course project examines key moments in the history of the creation of nuclear weapons. The main types and characteristics of atomic projectiles are shown.

A classification of nuclear explosions is given. Considered various shapes energy release during 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.

Coursework completed in text editor Microsoft Word 2003

2.4 Damaging factors of a nuclear explosion

2.4.4 Radioactive contamination

3.1 Basic elements of nuclear weapons

3.3 Thermonuclear bomb design

Introduction

The structure of the electron shell was sufficiently studied by the end of the 19th century, but there was very little knowledge about the structure of the atomic nucleus, and, moreover, it was contradictory.

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

The Curies found that, in addition to uranium, thorium, polonium and chemical compounds of uranium with thorium have the same radiation as uranium.

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

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

Currently, 5 countries have nuclear weapons in their arsenal: 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, this powerful tool deterrence, on the other hand, is the most effective tool for strengthening peace and preventing military conflicts between powers.

The tasks facing modern humanity are to prevent a nuclear arms race, because scientific knowledge can also serve humane, noble purposes.

1. History of the 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 associated with an amount of energy (E) equal to that mass times 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 in the explosion of 22 megatons of TNT.

In 1938, as a result of experiments by German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, they managed to split the uranium atom into two approximately equal parts by bombarding uranium with neutrons. British physicist Robert Frisch explained how energy is released when the nucleus of an atom splits.

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

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

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

nuclear weapon explosion shell

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 create an atomic bomb. It has now become known that German scientists were very far from carrying out a chain reaction. Their plans included making a “dirty”, highly radioactive bomb.

Be that as it may, the government of the United States made a decision 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 purification plant was built in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. A purification method was proposed in which a gas centrifuge separated light Uranium-235 from heavier Uranium-238.

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

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

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

By the summer of 1945, the Americans managed to assemble two atomic bombs, called “Baby” and “Fat Man”. The first bomb weighed 2,722 kg and was filled with enriched Uranium-235. “Fat Man” with a charge of Plutonium-239 with a power of more than 20 kt had a mass of 3175 kg.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, the Baby 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 the shock wave, another 200 thousand were injured, burned, or exposed to radiation. All buildings on an area of ​​12 sq. km were completely destroyed. These bombings shocked the whole world.

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

But already in 1946, they were discovered in the USSR and immediately began to be developed large deposits higher quality uranium. A test site was built in the area of ​​Semipalatinsk. And on August 29, 1949, the first Soviet nuclear device, codenamed 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 humanity.

2. Atomic weapons are weapons of mass destruction

2.1 Nuclear weapons

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

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

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

If an explosion occurs on the ground or quite close to its surface, then part of the explosion energy is transferred to the Earth's surface in the form of seismic vibrations. A phenomenon occurs that resembles an earthquake in its characteristics. 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 sun rays, falling to the Earth. A flash produces a huge amount of heat and light. Light radiation causes spontaneous combustion of flammable materials and skin burns in people within a radius of many kilometers.

One of the first practical steps of the Special Committee and the PSU was the decision to create a production base for the nuclear weapons complex. In 1946, a number of major decisions in connection with these plans. One of them concerned the creation of a specialized design bureau for the development of nuclear weapons at Laboratory No. 2.

On April 9, 1946, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted closed resolution No. 806-327 on the creation of KB-11. This was the name of the organization designed to create a “product,” that is, an atomic bomb. P.M. was appointed head of KB-11. Zernov, chief designer - Yu.B. Khariton.

By the time the resolution was adopted, the issue of creating KB-11 had been worked out in detail. Its location has already been determined, taking into account the specifics of future work. On the one hand, the particularly high degree of secrecy of the planned work and the need to conduct explosive experiments predetermined the choice of a sparsely populated area hidden from visual observations. On the other hand, one should not move too far away from enterprises and organizations co-executing the nuclear project, a significant part of which were located in the central regions of the country. An important factor was the presence of a production base and transport arteries on the territory of the future design bureau.

KB-11 was tasked with creating two versions of atomic bombs - a plutonium bomb using spherical compression and a uranium bomb with cannon rapprochement. Upon completion of development, it was planned to conduct state tests of the charges at a special testing ground. The ground explosion of the plutonium bomb charge was supposed to be carried out before January 1, 1948, and the uranium bomb – before June 1, 1948.

The official starting point for the beginning of the development of RDS-1 should be the date of issuance of the “Tactical and Technical Specifications for an Atomic Bomb” (TTZ), signed by Chief Designer Yu.B. Khariton on July 1, 1946 and sent to the head of the First Main Directorate under the USSR Council of Ministers B.L. Vannikov. The terms of reference consisted of 9 points and stipulated the type of nuclear fuel, the method of transferring it through a critical state, the overall mass characteristics of the atomic bomb, the timing of the operation of electric detonators, the requirements for a high-altitude fuse and the self-destruction of the product in the event of failure of the equipment that ensures the operation of this fuse.

In accordance with the TTZ, the development of two versions of atomic bombs was envisaged - an implosion type with plutonium and a uranium type with cannon approach. The length of the bomb should not exceed 5 meters, diameter - 1.5 meters, and weight - 5 tons.

At the same time, it was planned to build a test site, an airfield, a pilot plant, as well as organize a medical service, create a library, etc.

The creation of an atomic bomb required the solution of an exceptionally wide range of physical and technical issues, related to the implementation of an extensive program of theoretical and theoretical research, design and experimental work. First of all, research had to be done physical and chemical properties fissile materials, develop and test methods for their casting and machining. It was necessary to create radiochemical methods for extracting various fission products, organize the production of polonium, and develop technology for the manufacture of neutron sources. Methods for determining the critical mass, the development of a theory of efficiency or efficiency, as well as the theory of a nuclear explosion in general, and much more were required.

The given brief enumeration of the directions in which the work unfolded does not exhaust the entire content of the activities that required implementation for the successful completion of the atomic project.

The February 1948 resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, which adjusted the deadlines for completing the main task of nuclear project, Yu.B. Khariton and P.M. Zernov was instructed to ensure the production and presentation of one set of the RDS-1 atomic bomb with full equipment by March 1, 1949 for state testing.

In order to complete the task in a timely manner, the resolution stipulated the scope and timing of the completion of research work and the production of material for flight design tests, as well as the resolution of certain organizational and personnel issues.

The following research works stood out:

• completion of testing of a spherical explosive charge by May 1948;
• study until July of the same year of the problem of metal compression during the explosion of an explosive charge;
• development of a neutron fuse design by January 1949;
• determination of critical mass and assembly of plutonium and uranium charges for RDS-1 and RDS-2. Ensuring the assembly of the plutonium charge for RDS-1 before February 1, 1949.

The development of the design of the atomic charge itself - “RD-1” - (later, in the second half of 1946, called “RDS-1”) was started at NII-6 at the end of 1945. Development began with a charge model on a scale of 1/5 full-scale. The work was carried out without technical specifications, but solely according to the oral instructions of Yu.B. Khariton. The first drawings were made by N.A. Terletsky, who worked at NII-6 in a separate room, where only Yu.B. was allowed entry. Khariton and E.M. Adaskin - deputy. director of NII-6, who carried out general coordination of work with other groups that began developing high-speed detonators to ensure synchronous detonation of a group of electric detonators and work on the electrical actuation system. A separate group began to select explosives and technologies for manufacturing unusual shapes of parts from aircraft.

At the beginning of 1946, the model was developed, and by the summer it was produced in 2 copies. The model was tested at the NII-6 test site in Sofrino.

By the end of 1946, the development of documentation for a full-scale charge began, the development of which began to be carried out already in KB-11, where at the beginning of 1947, in Sarov, initially minimal conditions were created for the manufacture of blocks and carrying out blasting operations (parts from explosives, before launching into operation of plant No. 2 in KB-11, supplied from NII-6).

If at the beginning of the development of atomic charges, domestic physicists were to some extent ready for the topic of creating an atomic bomb (based on their previous work), then for the designers this topic was completely new. They did not know the physical principles of the charge, the new materials used in the design, their physical and mechanical properties, the admissibility of joint storage, etc.

The large dimensions of explosive parts and their complex geometric shapes, tight tolerances required the solution of many technological problems. Thus, specialized enterprises in the country did not undertake the production of large-sized charge housings, and pilot plant No. 1 (KB-11) had to produce a sample housing, after which these housings began to be manufactured at the Kirov plant in Leningrad. Large-sized parts from explosives were also initially manufactured in KB-11.

During the initial organization of the development of charge components, when institutes and enterprises of various ministries were involved in the work, a problem arose due to the fact that the documentation was developed according to various departmental guidelines (instructions, technical specifications, standards, construction of drawing symbols, etc. .). This situation greatly hampered production due to large differences in the requirements for the manufactured charge elements. The situation was corrected in 1948-1949. with the appointment of N.L. as deputy chief designer and head of the research and development sector of KB-11. Dukhova. He brought with him from OKB-700 (from Chelyabinsk) the “Drawing Management System” adopted there and organized the processing of previously developed documentation, bringing it to unified system. New system best suited the conditions of our specific development, which provides for multivariate design development (due to the novelty of the designs).

As for the radio and electrical charge elements (“RDS-1”), they are entirely domestically developed. Moreover, they were developed with duplication of the most critical elements (to ensure the necessary reliability) and possible miniaturization.

Strict requirements for the reliability of charge operation, the safety of working with the charge, and the preservation of the quality of the charge during the warranty period of its shelf life determined the thorough development of the design.

Information supplied by intelligence about the contours of the bombs and their sizes was sparse and often contradictory. So, about the caliber of a uranium bomb, i.e. “Baby”, it was reported that it was either 3" (inches) or 51/2" (in fact, the caliber turned out to be noticeably larger). About the plutonium bomb, i.e. “Fat man” - that it looks “like a pear-shaped body”, and about the diameter - it is either 1.27 m or 1.5 m. So the bomb developers had to start everything almost from scratch.

TsAGI was involved in developing the body contours of the KB-11 aerial bomb. Blowing through his wind tunnels an unprecedented number of contour options (more than 100, under the leadership of Academician S.A. Khristianovich) began to bring success.

Need to use complex system automation - this is another fundamental difference from the development of conventional aerial bombs. The automation system consisted of safety stages and long-range cocking sensors; starting, “critical” and contact sensors; energy sources (batteries) and an initiation system (including a set of detonator capsules), ensuring synchronous operation of the latter, with different timings in the microsecond range.

Thus, at the first stage of the project:

• the carrier aircraft was determined: TU-4 (by order of I.V. Stalin, the American “flying fortress” B-29 was reproduced);
• Several design options for aerial bombs have been developed; their flight tests were carried out and contours and structures that meet the requirements of atomic weapons were selected;
• an automatic system for the bomb and the aircraft instrument panel was developed, which guaranteed the safety of the suspension, flight and battery release, the implementation of an air explosion at a given altitude and, at the same time, the safety of the aircraft after an atomic explosion.

Structurally, the first atomic bomb consisted of the following fundamental components:

• nuclear charge;
• explosive device and automatic charge detonation system with safety systems;
• the ballistic body of the aerial bomb, which housed the nuclear charge and automatic detonation.

The atomic charge of the RDS-1 bomb was a multilayer structure, in which the translation active substance– plutonium into a supercritical state was carried out due to its compression by means of a converging spherical detonation wave in an explosive.

Great successes have been achieved not only by technologists, but also by metallurgists and radiochemists. Thanks to their efforts, already the first plutonium parts contained small amounts of impurities and highly active isotopes. The last point was especially significant, since short-lived isotopes, being the main source of neutrons, could have a negative impact on the likelihood of a premature explosion.

A neutron fuse (NF) was installed in the cavity of the plutonium core in a composite shell of natural uranium. During 1947-1948, about 20 different proposals were considered regarding the principles of operation, design and improvement of the NC.

One of the most complex components of the first atomic bomb RDS-1 was an explosive charge made from an alloy of TNT and hexogen.

The choice of the outer radius of the explosive was determined, on the one hand, by the need to obtain satisfactory energy release, and, on the other, by the permissible external dimensions of the product and technological production capabilities.

The first atomic bomb was developed in relation to its suspension in the TU-4 aircraft, the bomb bay of which provided the ability to accommodate a product with a diameter of up to 1500 mm. Based on this dimension, the midsection of the ballistic body of the RDS-1 bomb was determined. The explosive charge was structurally a hollow ball and consisted of two layers.

The inner layer was formed from two hemispherical bases made from a domestic alloy of TNT and hexogen.

The outer layer of the RDS-1 explosive charge was assembled from individual elements. This layer, intended to form a spherical converging detonation wave at the base of the explosive and called the focusing system, was one of the main functional units of the charge, which largely determined its tactical and technical performance.

Already at the very initial stage of the development of nuclear weapons, it became obvious that the study of the processes occurring in the charge should follow the computational and experimental path, which made it possible to correct the theoretical analysis based on the results of experiments and experimental data on the gas-dynamic characteristics of nuclear charges.

It is worth especially noting that chief designer RDS-1 Yu.B. Khariton and the main developers, theoretical physicists, knew about the high probability of a 2.5% incomplete explosion (a reduction in explosion power of ~ 10%) and about the consequences that awaited them if it were realized. They knew and... worked.

The location for the test site was chosen near the city of Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR, in a waterless steppe with rare abandoned and dry wells, salt lakes, and partially covered with low mountains. The site intended for the construction of the test complex was a plain with a diameter of approximately 20 km, surrounded on the south, west and north by low mountains.

Construction of the test site began in 1947 and was completed by July 1949. In just two years, a colossal volume of work was completed, with excellent quality and at a high technical level. All materials were delivered to construction sites by road along dirt roads 100-200 km away. Traffic was around the clock both in winter and summer.

The experimental field contained numerous structures with measuring equipment, military, civil and industrial facilities to study the effects of the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion. In the center of the experimental field there was a metal tower 37.5 m high for the installation of RDS-1.

The experimental field was divided into 14 test sectors: two fortification sectors; civil engineering sector; physical sector; military sectors for the placement of samples of military equipment; biological sector. Along radii in the northeast and southeast directions on different distances From the center, instrument buildings were built to house photochronographic, film and oscillographic equipment recording the processes of a nuclear explosion.

At a distance of 1000 m from the center, an underground building was built for equipment that recorded light, neutron and gamma fluxes of a nuclear explosion. Optical and oscillographic equipment was controlled via cables from a software machine.

To study the impact of a nuclear explosion, sections of metro tunnels, fragments of airfield runways were built on the experimental field, and samples of aircraft, tanks, artillery rocket launchers, and ship superstructures of various types were placed. To transport this military equipment, 90 railway cars were needed.

The government commission for testing RDS-1, chaired by M.G. Pervukhina began work on July 27, 1949. On August 5, the commission made a conclusion about full readiness test site and it was proposed to carry out detailed testing of the assembly and detonation operations of the product within 15 days. The test time was determined - the last days of August.

I.V. was appointed scientific supervisor of the trial. Kurchatov, from the Ministry of Defense, the preparation of the test site for testing was led by Major General V.A. Bolyatko, the scientific management of the test site was carried out by M.A. Sadovsky.

In the period from August 10 to August 26, 10 rehearsals were held to control the test field and the charge detonation equipment, as well as three training exercises with the launch of all equipment and 4 detonations of full-scale explosives with an aluminum ball from automatic detonation.

On August 21, a plutonium charge and four neutron fuses were delivered to the test site by a special train, one of which was to be used to detonate a warhead.

Scientific supervisor of the experiment I.V. Kurchatov, in accordance with the instructions of L.P. Beria, gave the order to test the RDS-1 on August 29 at 8 a.m. local time.

On the night of August 29, 1949, a final assembly charge. The assembly of the central part with the installation of parts made of plutonium and a neutron fuse was carried out by a group consisting of N.L. Dukhova, N.A. Terletsky, D.A. Fishman and V.A. Davidenko (installation “NZ”). The final installation of the charge was completed by 3 a.m. on August 29 under the leadership of A.Ya. Malsky and V.I. Alferova. Members of the special committee L.P. Beria, M.G. Pervukhin and V.A. The Makhnev controlled the progress of the final operations.

On the day of the test command post test site, located 10 km from the center of the test field, the majority of the top test management gathered: L.P. Beria, M.G. Pervukhin, I.V. Kurchatov, Yu.B. Khariton, K.I. Shchelkin, KB-11 employees who participated in the final installation of the charge on the tower.

By 6 o'clock in the morning the charge was lifted onto the test tower, it was equipped with fuses and connected to the blasting circuit.

Due to worsening weather, all work required by the approved regulations began to be carried out with a one-hour shift earlier (from 7.00 instead of 8.00 as planned).

At 6:35 a.m., the operators turned on the power to the automation system, and at 6:48 a.m. the test field machine was turned on.

At exactly 7 a.m. on August 29, 1949, the entire area was illuminated with a dazzling light, which signaled that the USSR had successfully completed the development and testing of the first atomic bomb.

According to the recollections of test participant D.A. Fishman, the events in the control room unfolded as follows:

In the last seconds before the explosion, the doors located on the back side of the command post building (from the center of the field) were slightly opened so that the moment of the explosion could be observed by a burst of lighting in the area. At the zero moments, everyone saw a very bright illumination of the earth and clouds. The brightness was several times higher than that of the sun. It was clear that the explosion was successful!

Everyone ran out of the room and ran up onto the parapet protecting the command post from the direct impact of the explosion. Before them opened a picture, enchanting in its scale, of the formation of a huge cloud of dust and smoke, in the center of which a flame was blazing!

But Malsky’s words were heard from the loudspeaker: “Everyone immediately enter the command post building! A shock wave is approaching” (according to calculations, it should have arrived at the command post in 30 seconds).

Upon entering the room, L.P. Beria warmly congratulated everyone on the successful test, and I.V. Kurchatova and Yu.B. He kissed Khariton. But inside, apparently, he still had some doubts about the completeness of the explosion, since he did not immediately call and report to I.V. Stalin about the successful test, and went to the second observation point, where nuclear physicist M.G. Meshcheryakov, who in 1946 attended demonstration tests of US atomic charges on Bikini Atoll.

At the second observation point, Beria also warmly congratulated M.G. Meshcheryakova, Ya.B. Zeldovich, N.L. Dukhov and other comrades. After this, he meticulously questioned Meshcheryakov about the external effect of the American explosions. Meshcheryakov assured that our explosion was superior in appearance to the American one.

Having received confirmation from an eyewitness, Beria went to the test site headquarters in order to inform Stalin about the successful test.

Stalin, having learned about the successful test, immediately called B.L. Vannikova (who was at home and could not attend the test due to illness) and congratulated him on the successful test.

According to the memoirs of Boris Lvovich, in response to congratulations, he began to say that this was the merit of the party and the government... Then Stalin interrupted him, saying: “Come on, Comrade Vannikov, these formalities. You better think about how we can start producing these products in the shortest possible time.”

20 minutes after the explosion, two tanks equipped with lead protection were sent to the center of the field to conduct radiation reconnaissance and inspect the center of the field.

Reconnaissance determined that all structures in the center of the field had been demolished. A crater formed at the site of the tower, the soil in the center of the field melted and a continuous crust of slag formed. Civil buildings and industrial structures were completely or partially destroyed. Eyewitnesses were presented with a terrible picture of the great massacre.

The energy release of the first Soviet atomic bomb was 22 kilotons of TNT equivalent.