The American Robert Oppenheimer and the Soviet scientist Igor Kurchatov are usually called the fathers of the atomic bomb. But considering that work on the deadly was carried out in parallel in four countries and, in addition to scientists from these countries, people from Italy, Hungary, Denmark, etc., took part in it, the resulting bomb can rightly be called the brainchild of different peoples.
The Germans were the first to get down to business. In December 1938, their physicists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann were the first in the world to artificially split the nucleus of a uranium atom. In April 1939, the German military leadership received a letter from Hamburg University professors P. Harteck and W. Groth, which indicated the fundamental possibility of creating a new type of highly effective explosive. Scientists wrote: “The country that is the first to practically master the achievements of nuclear physics will acquire absolute superiority over others.” And now the Imperial Ministry of Science and Education is holding a meeting on the topic “On a self-propagating (that is, chain) nuclear reaction.” Among the participants is Professor E. Schumann, head of the research department of the Armament Directorate of the Third Reich. Without delay, we moved from words to deeds. Already in June 1939, construction of Germany's first reactor plant began at the Kummersdorf test site near Berlin. A law was passed banning the export of uranium outside Germany, and a large amount of uranium ore was urgently purchased from the Belgian Congo.
Germany starts and... loses
On September 26, 1939, when war was already raging in Europe, it was decided to classify all work related to the uranium problem and the implementation of the program, called the “Uranium Project”. The scientists involved in the project were initially very optimistic: they believed it was possible to create nuclear weapons within a year. They were wrong, as life has shown.
22 organizations were involved in the project, including such well-known scientific centers as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society Physics Institute, the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the University of Hamburg, the Physics Institute of the Higher Technical School in Berlin, the Physico-Chemical Institute of the University of Leipzig and many others. The project was personally supervised by the Reich Minister of Armaments Albert Speer. The IG Farbenindustry concern was entrusted with the production of uranium hexafluoride, from which it is possible to extract the uranium-235 isotope, capable of maintaining a chain reaction. The same company was also entrusted with the construction of an isotope separation plant. Such venerable scientists as Heisenberg, Weizsäcker, von Ardenne, Riehl, Pose, Nobel laureate Gustav Hertz and others directly participated in the work.
Over the course of two years, Heisenberg's group carried out the research necessary to create a nuclear reactor using uranium and heavy water. It was confirmed that only one of the isotopes, namely uranium-235, contained in very small concentrations in ordinary uranium ore, can serve as an explosive. The first problem was how to isolate it from there. The starting point of the bomb program was atomic reactor, which required graphite or heavy water as a reaction moderator. German physicists chose water, thereby creating for themselves serious problem. After the occupation of Norway, the world's only heavy water production plant at that time passed into the hands of the Nazis. But there, at the beginning of the war, the supply of the product needed by physicists was only tens of kilograms, and even they did not go to the Germans - the French stole valuable products literally from under the noses of the Nazis. And in February 1943, British commandos sent to Norway, with the help of local resistance fighters, put the plant out of commission. The implementation of Germany's nuclear program was under threat. The misfortunes of the Germans did not end there: an experimental nuclear reactor exploded in Leipzig. The uranium project was supported by Hitler only as long as there was hope of obtaining super-powerful weapons before the end of the war he started. Heisenberg was invited by Speer and asked directly: “When can we expect the creation of a bomb capable of being suspended from a bomber?” The scientist was honest: “I believe it will take several years of hard work, in any case, the bomb will not be able to influence the outcome of the current war.” The German leadership rationally considered that there was no point in forcing events. Let the scientists work quietly - you'll see they'll be in time for the next war. As a result, Hitler decided to concentrate scientific, production and financial resources only on projects that would give the fastest return in the creation of new types of weapons. Government funding for the uranium project was curtailed. Nevertheless, the work of scientists continued.
In 1944, Heisenberg received cast uranium plates for a large reactor plant, for which a special bunker was already being built in Berlin. The last experiment to achieve a chain reaction was scheduled for January 1945, but on January 31 all the equipment was hastily dismantled and sent from Berlin to the village of Haigerloch near the Swiss border, where it was deployed only at the end of February. The reactor contained 664 cubes of uranium with a total weight of 1525 kg, surrounded by a graphite moderator-neutron reflector weighing 10 tons. In March 1945, an additional 1.5 tons of heavy water was poured into the core. On March 23, Berlin was reported that the reactor was operational. But the joy was premature - the reactor did not reach critical point, chain reaction didn't go. After recalculations, it turned out that the amount of uranium must be increased by at least 750 kg, proportionally increasing the mass of heavy water. But there were no more reserves of either one or the other. The end of the Third Reich was inexorably approaching. On April 23, American troops entered Haigerloch. The reactor was dismantled and transported to the USA.
Meanwhile overseas
In parallel with the Germans (with only a slight lag), the development of atomic weapons began in England and the USA. They began with a letter sent in September 1939 by Albert Einstein to US President Franklin Roosevelt. The initiators of the letter and the authors of most of the text were physicists-emigrants from Hungary Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner and Edward Teller. The letter drew the president's attention to the fact that Nazi Germany was conducting active research, as a result of which it might soon acquire an atomic bomb.
In the USSR, the first information about the work carried out by both the allies and the enemy was reported to Stalin by intelligence back in 1943. A decision was immediately made to launch similar work in the Union. Thus began the Soviet atomic project. Not only scientists received assignments, but also intelligence officers, for whom the extraction of nuclear secrets became a top priority.
The most valuable information about the work on the atomic bomb in the United States, obtained by intelligence, greatly helped the advancement of the Soviet nuclear project. The scientists participating in it were able to avoid dead-end search paths, thereby significantly accelerating the achievement of the final goal.
Experience of recent enemies and allies
Naturally, the Soviet leadership could not remain indifferent to German atomic developments. At the end of the war, a group of Soviet physicists was sent to Germany, among whom were future academicians Artsimovich, Kikoin, Khariton, Shchelkin. Everyone was camouflaged in the uniform of Red Army colonels. The operation was led by First Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Ivan Serov, which opened any doors. In addition to the necessary German scientists, the “colonels” found tons of uranium metal, which, according to Kurchatov, shortened the work on the Soviet bomb by at least a year. The Americans also removed a lot of uranium from Germany, taking along the specialists who worked on the project. And in the USSR, in addition to physicists and chemists, they sent mechanics, electrical engineers, and glassblowers. Some were found in prisoner of war camps. For example, Max Steinbeck, the future Soviet academician and vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR, was taken away when, at the whim of the camp commander, he was making a sundial. In total, at least 1,000 German specialists worked on the nuclear project in the USSR. The von Ardenne laboratory with a uranium centrifuge, equipment from the Kaiser Institute of Physics, documentation, and reagents were completely removed from Berlin. As part of the atomic project, laboratories “A”, “B”, “C” and “D” were created, the scientific directors of which were scientists who arrived from Germany.
Laboratory “A” was led by Baron Manfred von Ardenne, a talented physicist who developed a method of gas diffusion purification and separation of uranium isotopes in a centrifuge. At first, his laboratory was located on Oktyabrsky Pole in Moscow. Each German specialist was assigned five or six Soviet engineers. Later the laboratory moved to Sukhumi, and over time the famous Kurchatov Institute grew up on Oktyabrsky Field. In Sukhumi, on the basis of the von Ardenne laboratory, the Sukhumi Institute of Physics and Technology was formed. In 1947, Ardenne was awarded the Stalin Prize for creating a centrifuge for purifying uranium isotopes on an industrial scale. Six years later, Ardenne became a two-time Stalinist laureate. He lived with his wife in a comfortable mansion, his wife played music on a piano brought from Germany. Other German specialists were not offended either: they came with their families, brought with them furniture, books, paintings, and were provided with good salaries and food. Were they prisoners? Academician A.P. Aleksandrov, himself an active participant in the atomic project, noted: “Of course, the German specialists were prisoners, but we ourselves were prisoners.”
Nikolaus Riehl, a native of St. Petersburg who moved to Germany in the 1920s, became the head of Laboratory B, which conducted research in the field of radiation chemistry and biology in the Urals (now the city of Snezhinsk). Here, Riehl worked with his old friend from Germany, the outstanding Russian biologist-geneticist Timofeev-Resovsky (“Bison” based on the novel by D. Granin).
Having received recognition in the USSR as a researcher and talented organizer who knows how to find effective solutions the most difficult problems, Dr. Riehl became one of the key figures in the Soviet atomic project. After successfully testing a Soviet bomb, he became a Hero of Socialist Labor and a Stalin Prize laureate.
The work of Laboratory "B", organized in Obninsk, was headed by Professor Rudolf Pose, one of the pioneers in the field of nuclear research. Under his leadership, fast neutron reactors were created, the first nuclear power plant in the Union, and the design of reactors for submarines began. The facility in Obninsk became the basis for the organization of the Physics and Energy Institute named after A.I. Leypunsky. Pose worked until 1957 in Sukhumi, then at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna.
The head of Laboratory "G", located in the Sukhumi sanatorium "Agudzery", was Gustav Hertz, the nephew of the famous physicist of the 19th century, himself a famous scientist. He was recognized for a series of experiments that confirmed Niels Bohr's theory of the atom and quantum mechanics. The results of his very successful activities in Sukhumi were later used at an industrial installation built in Novouralsk, where in 1949 the filling for the first Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1 was developed. For his achievements within the framework of the atomic project, Gustav Hertz was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1951.
German specialists who received permission to return to their homeland (naturally, to the GDR) signed a non-disclosure agreement for 25 years about their participation in the Soviet atomic project. In Germany they continued to work in their specialty. Thus, Manfred von Ardenne, twice awarded the National Prize of the GDR, served as director of the Institute of Physics in Dresden, created under the auspices of the Scientific Council for the Peaceful Applications of Atomic Energy, headed by Gustav Hertz. Hertz also received a national prize - as the author of a three-volume work-textbook on nuclear physics. Rudolf Pose also worked there, in Dresden, at the Technical University.
The participation of German scientists in the atomic project, as well as the successes of intelligence officers, in no way detract from the merits of Soviet scientists, whose selfless work ensured the creation of domestic atomic weapons. However, it must be admitted that without the contribution of both of them, the creation of the nuclear industry and atomic weapons in the USSR would have dragged on for many years.
Little Boy
The American uranium bomb that destroyed Hiroshima had a cannon design. Soviet nuclear scientists, when creating the RDS-1, were guided by the “Nagasaki bomb” - Fat Boy, made of plutonium using an implosion design.
Manfred von Ardenne, who developed a method for gas diffusion purification and separation of uranium isotopes in a centrifuge.
Operation Crossroads was a series of atomic bomb tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in the summer of 1946. The goal was to test the effect of atomic weapons on ships.
Help from overseas
In 1933, German communist Klaus Fuchs fled to England. Having received a degree in physics from the University of Bristol, he continued to work. In 1941, Fuchs reported his participation in atomic research to Soviet intelligence agent Jürgen Kuchinsky, who informed the Soviet ambassador Ivan Maisky. He instructed the military attaché to urgently establish contact with Fuchs, who was going to be transported to the United States as part of a group of scientists. Fuchs agreed to work for Soviet intelligence. Many Soviet illegal intelligence officers were involved in working with him: the Zarubins, Eitingon, Vasilevsky, Semenov and others. As a result of their active work, already in January 1945 the USSR had a description of the design of the first atomic bomb. At the same time, the Soviet station in the United States reported that the Americans would need at least one year, but no more than five years, to create a significant arsenal of atomic weapons. The report also said that the first two bombs could be detonated within a few months.
Pioneers of nuclear fission
K. A. Petrzhak and G. N. Flerov
In 1940, in the laboratory of Igor Kurchatov, two young physicists discovered a new, very unique type of radioactive decay of atomic nuclei - spontaneous fission.
Otto Hahn
In December 1938, German physicists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann were the first in the world to artificially split the nucleus of a uranium atom.
The one who invented the atomic bomb could not even imagine what tragic consequences this miracle invention of the 20th century could lead to. It was a very long journey before the residents of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki experienced this superweapon.
A start
In April 1903, the famous French physicist Paul Langevin's friends gathered in the Paris Garden. The reason was the defense of the dissertation of the young and talented scientist Marie Curie. Among the distinguished guests was the famous English physicist Sir Ernest Rutherford. In the midst of the fun, the lights were turned off. Marie Curie announced to everyone that there would be a surprise.With a solemn look, Pierre Curie brought in a small tube with radium salts, which shone with a green light, causing extraordinary delight among those present. Subsequently, the guests heatedly discussed the future of this phenomenon. Everyone agreed that radium would solve the acute problem of energy shortages. This inspired everyone for new research and further prospects.
If they had been told then that laboratory works with radioactive elements will lay the foundation for the terrible weapons of the 20th century, it is unknown what their reaction would have been. It was then that the story of the atomic bomb began, killing hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians.
Playing ahead
On December 17, 1938, the German scientist Otto Gann obtained irrefutable evidence of the decay of uranium into smaller elementary particles. Essentially, he managed to split the atom. In the scientific world, this was regarded as a new milestone in the history of mankind. Otto Gann did not share the political views of the Third Reich.Therefore, in the same year, 1938, the scientist was forced to move to Stockholm, where, together with Friedrich Strassmann, he continued his scientific research. Fearing that Nazi Germany will be the first to receive terrible weapons, he writes a letter to the President of America warning about this.
The news of a possible advance greatly alarmed the US government. The Americans began to act quickly and decisively.
Who created the atomic bomb? American project
Even before the outbreak of World War II, a group of American scientists, many of whom were refugees from the Nazi regime in Europe, were tasked with developing nuclear weapons. Initial research, it is worth noting, was carried out in Nazi Germany. In 1940, the government of the United States of America began funding its own program to develop atomic weapons. An incredible sum of two and a half billion dollars was allocated to implement the project.Outstanding physicists of the 20th century were invited to implement this secret project, among whom were more than ten Nobel laureates. In total, about 130 thousand employees were involved, among whom were not only military personnel, but also civilians. The development team was headed by Colonel Leslie Richard Groves, and Robert Oppenheimer became the scientific director. He is the man who invented the atomic bomb.
A special secret engineering building was built in the Manhattan area, which we know under the code name “Manhattan Project”. Over the next few years, scientists from the secret project worked on the problem of nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium.
The non-peaceful atom of Igor Kurchatov
Today, every schoolchild will be able to answer the question of who invented the atomic bomb in the Soviet Union. And then, in the early 30s of the last century, no one knew this.In 1932, Academician Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov was one of the first in the world to begin studying the atomic nucleus. Gathering like-minded people around him, Igor Vasilyevich created the first cyclotron in Europe in 1937. In the same year, he and his like-minded people created the first artificial nuclei.
In 1939, I.V. Kurchatov began studying a new direction - nuclear physics. After several laboratory successes in studying this phenomenon, the scientist receives at his disposal a secret research center, which was named “Laboratory No. 2”. Nowadays this classified object is called "Arzamas-16".
The target direction of this center was the serious research and creation of nuclear weapons. Now it becomes obvious who created the atomic bomb in the Soviet Union. His team then consisted of only ten people.
There will be an atomic bomb
By the end of 1945, Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov managed to assemble a serious team of scientists numbering more than a hundred people. The best minds of various scientific specializations came to the laboratory from all over the country to create atomic weapons. After the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Soviet scientists realized that this could be done with the Soviet Union. "Laboratory No. 2" receives from the country's leadership a sharp increase in funding and a large influx of qualified personnel. Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria is appointed responsible for such an important project. The enormous efforts of Soviet scientists have borne fruit.Semipalatinsk test site
The atomic bomb in the USSR was first tested at the test site in Semipalatinsk (Kazakhstan). On August 29, 1949, a nuclear device with a yield of 22 kilotons shook the Kazakh soil. Nobel laureate physicist Otto Hanz said: “This is good news. If Russia has atomic weapons, then there will be no war.” It was this atomic bomb in the USSR, encrypted as product No. 501, or RDS-1, that eliminated the US monopoly on nuclear weapons.Atomic bomb. Year 1945
In the early morning of July 16, the Manhattan Project conducted its first successful test of an atomic device - a plutonium bomb - at the Alamogordo test site in New Mexico, USA.The money invested in the project was well spent. The first atomic explosion in human history was carried out at 5:30 am.
“We have done the devil’s work,” Robert Oppenheimer, the one who invented the atomic bomb in the United States and later called the “father of the atomic bomb,” would later say.
Japan will not capitulate
By the time of the final and successful testing of the atomic bomb Soviet troops and the Allies finally defeated Nazi Germany. However, there was one state that promised to fight to the end for dominance in the Pacific Ocean. From mid-April to mid-July 1945, the Japanese army repeatedly carried out air strikes against allied forces, thereby inflicting heavy losses on the US army. At the end of July 1945, the militaristic Japanese government rejected the Allied demand for surrender under the Potsdam Declaration. It stated, in particular, that in case of disobedience, the Japanese army would face rapid and complete destruction.The President agrees
The American government kept its word and began a targeted bombing of Japanese military positions. Air strikes did not bring the desired result, and US President Harry Truman decides to invade Japanese territory by American troops. However, the military command dissuades its president from such a decision, citing the fact that an American invasion would entail a large number of casualties.At the suggestion of Henry Lewis Stimson and Dwight David Eisenhower, it was decided to use more effective method end of the war. A big supporter of the atomic bomb, US Presidential Secretary James Francis Byrnes, believed that the bombing of Japanese territories would finally end the war and put the United States in a dominant position, which would have a positive impact on the further course of events in the post-war world. Thus, US President Harry Truman was convinced that this was the only correct option.
Atomic bomb. Hiroshima
The small Japanese city of Hiroshima with a population of just over 350 thousand people, located five hundred miles from the Japanese capital Tokyo, was chosen as the first target. After the modified B-29 Enola Gay bomber arrived at the US naval base on Tinian Island, an atomic bomb was installed on board the aircraft. Hiroshima was to experience the effects of 9 thousand pounds of uranium-235.This never-before-seen weapon was intended for civilians in a small Japanese town. The bomber's commander was Colonel Paul Warfield Tibbetts Jr. The US atomic bomb bore the cynical name “Baby”. On the morning of August 6, 1945, at approximately 8:15 a.m., the American “Little” was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. About 15 thousand tons of TNT destroyed all life within a radius of five square miles. One hundred and forty thousand city residents died in a matter of seconds. The surviving Japanese died a painful death from radiation sickness.
They were destroyed by the American atomic “Baby”. However, the devastation of Hiroshima did not cause the immediate surrender of Japan, as everyone expected. Then it was decided to carry out another bombing of Japanese territory.
Nagasaki. The sky is on fire
The American atomic bomb “Fat Man” was installed on board a B-29 aircraft on August 9, 1945, still there, at the US naval base in Tinian. This time the aircraft commander was Major Charles Sweeney. Initially, the strategic target was the city of Kokura.However, weather conditions did not allow the plan to be carried out; heavy clouds interfered. Charles Sweeney went into the second round. At 11:02 a.m., the American nuclear “Fat Man” engulfed Nagasaki. It was a more powerful destructive air strike, which was several times stronger than the bombing in Hiroshima. Nagasaki tested an atomic weapon weighing about 10 thousand pounds and 22 kilotons of TNT.
The geographic location of the Japanese city reduced the expected effect. The thing is that the city is located in a narrow valley between the mountains. Therefore, the destruction of 2.6 square miles did not reveal the full potential of American weapons. The Nagasaki atomic bomb test is considered the failed Manhattan Project.
Japan surrendered
At noon on August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced his country's surrender in a radio address to the people of Japan. This news quickly spread around the world. Celebrations began in the United States of America to mark the victory over Japan. The people rejoiced.On September 2, 1945, a formal agreement to end the war was signed aboard the American battleship Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay. Thus ended the most brutal and bloody war in human history.
For six long years, the world community has been moving towards this significant date - since September 1, 1939, when the first shots of Nazi Germany were fired in Poland.
Peaceful atom
In total, 124 nuclear explosions were carried out in the Soviet Union. What is characteristic is that all of them were carried out for the benefit of the national economy. Only three of them were accidents that resulted in the leakage of radioactive elements.Programs for the use of peaceful atoms were implemented in only two countries - the USA and the Soviet Union. Nuclear peaceful energy also knows an example of a global catastrophe, when on April 26, 1986 at the fourth power unit Chernobyl nuclear power plant the reactor exploded.
On August 12, 1953, at 7.30 am, the first Soviet hydrogen bomb was tested at the Semipalatinsk test site, which had the service name “Product RDS-6c”. This was the fourth Soviet nuclear weapons test.
The beginning of the first work on the thermonuclear program in the USSR dates back to 1945. Then information was received about research ongoing in the USA on thermonuclear problem. They were started on the initiative of the American physicist Edward Teller in 1942. The basis was taken by Teller’s concept of thermonuclear weapons, which in the circles of Soviet nuclear scientists was called a “pipe” - a cylindrical container with liquid deuterium, which was supposed to be heated by the explosion of an initiating device such as a conventional atomic bomb. Only in 1950 did the Americans establish that the “pipe” was futile, and they continued to develop other designs. But by this time, Soviet physicists had already independently developed another concept of thermonuclear weapons, which soon - in 1953 - led to success.
An alternative design for a hydrogen bomb was invented by Andrei Sakharov. The bomb was based on the idea of a “puff” and the use of lithium-6 deuteride. Developed at KB-11 (today the city of Sarov, former Arzamas-16, Nizhny Novgorod region), the RDS-6s thermonuclear charge was a spherical system of layers of uranium and thermonuclear fuel, surrounded by a chemical explosive.
To increase the energy release of the charge, tritium was used in its design. The main task in creating such a weapon was to use the energy released during the explosion of an atomic bomb to heat and ignite heavy hydrogen - deuterium, to carry out thermonuclear reactions with the release of energy that can support themselves. To increase the proportion of “burnt” deuterium, Sakharov proposed surrounding the deuterium with a shell of ordinary natural uranium, which was supposed to slow down the expansion and, most importantly, significantly increase the density of deuterium. The phenomenon of ionization compression of thermonuclear fuel, which became the basis of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb, is still called “saccharization.”
Based on the results of work on the first hydrogen bomb, Andrei Sakharov received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor and laureate of the Stalin Prize.
“Product RDS-6s” was made in the form of a transportable bomb weighing 7 tons, which was placed in the bomb hatch of a Tu-16 bomber. For comparison, the bomb created by the Americans weighed 54 tons and was the size of a three-story house.
To assess the destructive effects of the new bomb, a city of industrial and administrative buildings was built at the Semipalatinsk test site. In total, there were 190 different structures on the field. In this test, vacuum intakes of radiochemical samples were used for the first time, which automatically opened under the influence of a shock wave. In total, 500 different measuring, recording and filming devices installed in underground casemates and durable ground structures were prepared for testing the RDS-6s. Aviation technical support for the tests - measuring the pressure of the shock wave on the aircraft in the air at the time of the explosion of the product, taking air samples from the radioactive cloud, and aerial photography of the area was carried out by a special flight unit. The bomb was detonated remotely by sending a signal from a remote control located in the bunker.
It was decided to carry out an explosion on a steel tower 40 meters high, the charge was located at a height of 30 meters. The radioactive soil from previous tests was removed to a safe distance, special structures were built in their own places on old foundations, and a bunker was built 5 meters from the tower to install equipment developed at the Institute of Chemical Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences that recorded thermonuclear processes.
Military equipment from all branches of the military was installed on the field. During the tests, all experimental structures within a radius of up to four kilometers were destroyed. A hydrogen bomb explosion could completely destroy a city 8 kilometers across. Environmental consequences The explosions turned out to be terrifying: the first explosion accounted for 82% strontium-90 and 75% cesium-137.
The power of the bomb reached 400 kilotons, 20 times more than the first atomic bombs in the USA and USSR.
The work to create the hydrogen bomb became the world's first intellectual "battle of wits" on a truly global scale. The creation of the hydrogen bomb initiated the emergence of completely new scientific directions— physics of high-temperature plasma, physics of ultra-high energy densities, physics of anomalous pressures. For the first time in human history, mathematical modeling was used on a large scale.
Work on the “RDS-6s product” created a scientific and technical basis, which was then used in the development of an incomparably more advanced hydrogen bomb of a fundamentally new type - a two-stage hydrogen bomb.
The hydrogen bomb of Sakharov’s design not only became a serious counter-argument in the political confrontation between the USA and the USSR, but also served as the reason for the rapid development of Soviet cosmonautics in those years. It was after successful nuclear tests OKB Korolev received an important government task to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile to deliver the created charge to the target. Subsequently, the rocket, called the “seven”, launched the first artificial Earth satellite into space, and it was on it that the first cosmonaut of the planet, Yuri Gagarin, launched.
The material was prepared based on information from open sources
The emergence of such a powerful weapon as a nuclear bomb was the result of the interaction of global factors of an objective and subjective nature. Objectively, its creation was caused by the rapid development of science, which began with the fundamental discoveries of physics in the first half of the twentieth century. The strongest subjective factor was the military-political situation of the 40s, when the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition - the USA, Great Britain, the USSR - tried to get ahead of each other in the development of nuclear weapons.
Prerequisites for the creation of a nuclear bomb
The starting point of the scientific path to the creation of atomic weapons was 1896, when the French chemist A. Becquerel discovered the radioactivity of uranium. It was the chain reaction of this element that formed the basis for the development of terrible weapons.
At the end of the 19th century and in the first decades of the 20th century, scientists discovered alpha, beta, and gamma rays and discovered many radioactive isotopes chemical elements, the law of radioactive decay and laid the foundation for the study of nuclear isometry. In the 1930s, the neutron and positron became known, and the nucleus of a uranium atom was split for the first time with the absorption of neutrons. This was the impetus for the beginning of the creation of nuclear weapons. The first to invent and patent the design of a nuclear bomb in 1939 was the French physicist Frederic Joliot-Curie.
As a result further development Nuclear weapons have become a historically unprecedented military-political and strategic phenomenon capable of ensuring the national security of the possessor state and minimizing the capabilities of all other weapons systems.
The design of an atomic bomb consists of a number of different components, of which two main ones are distinguished:
- frame,
- automation system.
The automation, together with the nuclear charge, is located in a housing that protects them from various influences (mechanical, thermal, etc.). The automation system controls that the explosion occurs at a strictly specified time. It consists of the following elements:
- emergency explosion;
- safety and cocking device;
- power supply;
- charge explosion sensors.
Delivery of atomic charges is carried out using aviation, ballistic and cruise missiles. In this case, nuclear weapons can be an element of a landmine, torpedo, aerial bomb, etc.
Nuclear bomb detonation systems vary. The simplest is the injection device, in which the impetus for the explosion is hitting the target and the subsequent formation of a supercritical mass.
Another characteristic of atomic weapons is the caliber size: small, medium, large. Most often, the power of an explosion is characterized in TNT equivalent. A small caliber nuclear weapon implies a charge power of several thousand tons of TNT. The average caliber is already equal to tens of thousands of tons of TNT, the large one is measured in millions.
Operating principle
The atomic bomb design is based on the principle of using nuclear energy released during a nuclear chain reaction. This is the process of fission of heavy or fusion of light nuclei. Due to the release of a huge amount of intranuclear energy in the shortest period of time, a nuclear bomb is classified as a weapon of mass destruction.
During this process, there are two key places:
- the center of a nuclear explosion in which the process directly takes place;
- the epicenter, which is the projection of this process onto the surface (of land or water).
A nuclear explosion releases such an amount of energy that, when projected onto the ground, causes seismic tremors. The range of their spread is very large, but significant damage environment is applied at a distance of only a few hundred meters.
Atomic weapons have several types of destruction:
- light radiation,
- radioactive contamination,
- shock wave,
- penetrating radiation,
- electromagnetic pulse.
A nuclear explosion is accompanied by a bright flash, which is formed due to the release large quantity light and thermal energy. The power of this flash is many times higher than the power sun rays, so the danger of damage from light and heat extends over several kilometers.
Another very dangerous factor in the impact of a nuclear bomb is the radiation generated during the explosion. It only acts for the first 60 seconds, but has maximum penetrating power.
The shock wave has great power and a significant destructive effect, so in a matter of seconds it causes enormous harm to people, equipment, and buildings.
Penetrating radiation is dangerous for living organisms and causes the development of radiation sickness in humans. The electromagnetic pulse affects only equipment.
All these types of damage together make the atomic bomb a very dangerous weapon.
First nuclear bomb tests
The United States was the first to show the greatest interest in atomic weapons. At the end of 1941, the country allocated enormous funds and resources for the creation of nuclear weapons. The result of the work was the first tests of an atomic bomb with the Gadget explosive device, which took place on July 16, 1945 in American state New Mexico.
The time has come for the United States to act. To bring the Second World War to a victorious end, it was decided to defeat Hitler's Germany's ally, Japan. The Pentagon selected targets for the first nuclear strikes, at which the United States wanted to demonstrate how powerful weapons it possessed.
On August 6 of the same year, the first atomic bomb, named "Baby," was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, and on August 9, a bomb named "Fat Man" fell on Nagasaki.
The hit in Hiroshima was considered perfect: the nuclear device exploded at an altitude of 200 meters. The blast wave overturned stoves in Japanese houses, heated by coal. This led to numerous fires even in urban areas far from the epicenter.
The initial flash was followed by a heat wave that lasted seconds, but its power, covering a radius of 4 km, melted tiles and quartz in granite slabs, and incinerated telegraph poles. Following the heat wave came a shock wave. The wind speed was 800 km/h, and its gust destroyed almost everything in the city. Of the 76 thousand buildings, 70 thousand were completely destroyed.
A few minutes later a strange rain of large black drops began to fall. It was caused by condensation formed in the colder layers of the atmosphere from steam and ash.
People caught in the fireball at a distance of 800 meters were burned and turned to dust. Some had their burnt skin torn off shock wave. Drops of black radioactive rain left incurable burns.
The survivors fell ill with a previously unknown disease. They began to experience nausea, vomiting, fever, and attacks of weakness. The level of white cells in the blood dropped sharply. These were the first signs of radiation sickness.
3 days after the bombing of Hiroshima, a bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. It had the same power and caused similar consequences.
Two atomic bombs destroyed hundreds of thousands of people in seconds. The first city was practically wiped off the face of the earth by the shock wave. More than half of the civilians (about 240 thousand people) died immediately from their wounds. Many people were exposed to radiation, which led to radiation sickness, cancer, and infertility. In Nagasaki, 73 thousand people were killed in the first days, and after some time another 35 thousand inhabitants died in great agony.
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Tests of RDS-37
Creation of the atomic bomb in Russia
The consequences of the bombings and the history of the inhabitants of Japanese cities shocked I. Stalin. It became clear that creating our own nuclear weapons is a matter of national security. On August 20, 1945, the Atomic Energy Committee began its work in Russia, headed by L. Beria.
Research on nuclear physics has been carried out in the USSR since 1918. In 1938, a commission on atomic nucleus. But with the outbreak of the war, almost all work in this direction was suspended.
In 1943, Soviet intelligence officers transferred from England classified scientific works on atomic energy, from which it followed that the creation of the atomic bomb in the West had advanced greatly. At the same time, reliable agents were introduced into several American nuclear research centers in the United States. They passed on information about the atomic bomb to Soviet scientists.
The terms of reference for the development of two versions of the atomic bomb were drawn up by their creator and one of the scientific supervisors, Yu. Khariton. In accordance with it, it was planned to create an RDS (“ jet engine special") with index 1 and 2:
- RDS-1 is a bomb with a plutonium charge, which was supposed to be detonated by spherical compression. His device was handed over to Russian intelligence.
- RDS-2 is a cannon bomb with two parts of a uranium charge, which must converge in the gun barrel until a critical mass is created.
In the history of the famous RDS, the most common decoding - “Russia does it itself” - was invented by Yu. Khariton’s deputy for scientific work K. Shchelkin. These words very accurately conveyed the essence of the work.
The information that the USSR had mastered the secrets of nuclear weapons caused a rush in the United States to quickly start a preemptive war. In July 1949, the Trojan plan appeared, according to which fighting planned to begin on January 1, 1950. The date of the attack was then moved to January 1, 1957, with the condition that all NATO countries would enter the war.
Information received through intelligence channels accelerated the work of Soviet scientists. According to Western experts, Soviet nuclear weapons could not have been created earlier than 1954-1955. However, the test of the first atomic bomb took place in the USSR at the end of August 1949.
At the test site in Semipalatinsk on August 29, 1949, the RDS-1 nuclear device was blown up - the first Soviet atomic bomb, which was invented by a team of scientists led by I. Kurchatov and Yu. Khariton. The explosion had a power of 22 kt. The design of the charge imitated the American “Fat Man”, and the electronic filling was created by Soviet scientists.
The Trojan plan, according to which the Americans were going to drop atomic bombs on 70 cities of the USSR, was thwarted due to the likelihood of a retaliatory strike. The event at the Semipalatinsk test site informed the world that the Soviet atomic bomb ended the American monopoly on the possession of new weapons. This invention completely destroyed the militaristic plan of the USA and NATO and prevented the development of the Third World War. Started new story- an era of world peace, existing under the threat of total destruction.
"Nuclear Club" of the world
Nuclear Club – symbol several states possessing nuclear weapons. Today we have such weapons:
- in the USA (since 1945)
- in Russia (originally USSR, since 1949)
- in Great Britain (since 1952)
- in France (since 1960)
- in China (since 1964)
- in India (since 1974)
- in Pakistan (since 1998)
- in North Korea (since 2006)
Israel is also considered to have nuclear weapons, although the country's leadership does not comment on its presence. In addition, on the territory of NATO member states (Germany, Italy, Turkey, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada) and allies (Japan, South Korea, despite the official refusal) US nuclear weapons are located.
Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, which owned part of the nuclear weapons after the collapse of the USSR, transferred them to Russia in the 90s, which became the sole heir to the Soviet nuclear arsenal.
Atomic (nuclear) weapons are the most powerful instrument of global politics, which has firmly entered the arsenal of relations between states. On the one hand, it is effective means deterrence, on the other hand, a powerful argument for preventing military conflict and strengthening peace between the powers that own these weapons. This is a symbol of an entire era in the history of mankind and international relations, which must be handled very wisely.
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Video about the Russian Tsar Bomba
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Sergey LESKOV
On August 12, 1953, the world's first hydrogen bomb was tested at the Semipalatinsk test site. This was the fourth Soviet nuclear weapons test. The power of the bomb, which had the secret code “product RDS-6 s,” reached 400 kilotons, 20 times more than the first atomic bombs in the USA and USSR. After the test, Kurchatov turned to 32-year-old Sakharov with a deep bow: “Thank you, the savior of Russia!”
Which is better - Bee Line or MTS? One of the most pressing issues of Russian everyday life. Half a century ago, in a narrow circle of nuclear physicists, the question was equally acute: which is better - an atomic bomb or a hydrogen one, also known as thermonuclear one? The atomic bomb, which the Americans made in 1945, and we made in 1949, is built on the principle of releasing colossal energy by separating heavy uranium or artificial plutonium nuclei. A thermonuclear bomb is built on a different principle: energy is released by the fusion of light isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium. Materials based on light elements do not have a critical mass, which was a great design difficulty in the atomic bomb. In addition, the fusion of deuterium and tritium releases 4.2 times more energy than the fission of nuclei of the same mass of uranium-235. In short, a hydrogen bomb is a much more powerful weapon than an atomic bomb.
In those years, the destructive power of the hydrogen bomb did not scare away any scientists. The world entered the era of the Cold War, McCarthyism was raging in the USA, and another wave of revelations arose in the USSR. Only Pyotr Kapitsa allowed himself demarches, who did not even appear at the ceremonial meeting at the Academy of Sciences on the occasion of Stalin’s 70th birthday. The question of his expulsion from the ranks of the academy was discussed, but the situation was saved by the President of the Academy of Sciences Sergei Vavilov, who noted that the first to be expelled was the classic writer Sholokhov, who skimps on all meetings without exception.
As is known, scientists were helped by intelligence data in creating the atomic bomb. But hydrogen bomb our agents almost ruined it. The information obtained from the famous Klaus Fuchs led both Americans and Soviet physicists to a dead end. The group under the command of Zeldovich lost 6 years checking erroneous data. Intelligence also provided the opinion of the famous Niels Bohr about the unreality of the “superbomb”. But the USSR had its own ideas, the prospects of which were difficult and risky for Stalin and Beria, who were pushing for the atomic bomb with all their might. This circumstance must not be forgotten in fruitless and stupid disputes about who worked more on nuclear weapons - Soviet intelligence or Soviet science.
The work on the hydrogen bomb was the first intellectual race in human history. To create an atomic bomb, it was important, first of all, to solve engineering problems and carry out large-scale work in mines and factories. The hydrogen bomb led to the emergence of new scientific directions - physics of high-temperature plasma, physics of ultra-high energy densities, physics of anomalous pressures. For the first time I had to resort to mathematical modeling. Our scientists compensated for the lag behind the United States in the field of computers (von Neumann apparatuses were already in use overseas) with ingenious computational methods using primitive adding machines.
In short, it was the world's first battle of wits. And the USSR won this battle. An alternative design for a hydrogen bomb was invented by Andrei Sakharov, an ordinary employee of Zeldovich’s group. Back in 1949, he proposed the original idea of the so-called “puff paste”, where cheap uranium-238, which was considered waste in the production of weapons-grade uranium, was used as an effective nuclear material. But if this “waste” is bombarded by fusion neutrons, 10 times more energy-intensive than fission neutrons, then uranium-238 begins to fission and the cost of obtaining each kiloton is reduced many times over. The phenomenon of ionization compression of thermonuclear fuel, which became the basis of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb, is still called “saccharization.” Vitaly Ginzburg proposed lithium deuteride as a fuel.
Work on the atomic and hydrogen bombs proceeded in parallel. Even before the atomic bomb tests in 1949, Vavilov and Khariton informed Beria about the “sloika”. After the infamous directive of President Truman in early 1950, at a meeting of the Special Committee chaired by Beria, it was decided to speed up work on the Sakharov design with a TNT equivalent of 1 megaton and a test date in 1954.
On November 1, 1952, at Elugelub Atoll, the United States tested the Mike thermonuclear device with an energy release of 10 megatons, 500 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. However, "Mike" was not a bomb - a gigantic structure the size of a two-story house. But the power of the explosion was amazing. The neutron flux was so great that it was possible to discover two new elements - einsteinium and fermium.
They threw all their efforts into the hydrogen bomb. The work was not slowed down by either the death of Stalin or the arrest of Beria. Finally, on August 12, 1953, the world's first hydrogen bomb was tested in Semipalatinsk. The environmental consequences were horrific. The first explosion during the nuclear tests in Semipalatinsk accounted for 82% of strontium-90 and 75% of cesium-137. But then no one thought about radioactive contamination, or about the environment in general.
The first hydrogen bomb caused the rapid development of Soviet cosmonautics. After the nuclear tests, the Korolev Design Bureau received the task of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile for this charge. This rocket, called the “seven”, launched the first artificial satellite of the Earth into space, and the first cosmonaut of the planet, Yuri Gagarin, launched on it.
On November 6, 1955, a hydrogen bomb dropped from a Tu-16 aircraft was tested for the first time. In the United States, the dropping of a hydrogen bomb took place only on May 21, 1956. But it turned out that Andrei Sakharov’s first bomb was also a dead end; it was never tested again. Even earlier, on March 1, 1954, near the Bikini Atoll, the United States detonated a charge of unheard-of power - 15 megatons. It was based on the idea of Teller and Ulam about the compression of the thermonuclear unit not by mechanical energy and neutron flux, but by the radiation of the first explosion, the so-called initiator. After the test, which resulted in casualties among the civilian population, Igor Tamm demanded that his colleagues abandon all previous ideas, even the national pride of the “puff puff” and find a fundamentally new way: “Everything we have done so far is of no use to anyone. We are unemployed. I am confident that in a few months we will reach our goal."
And already in the spring of 1954, Soviet physicists came up with the idea of an explosive initiator. The authorship of the idea belongs to Zeldovich and Sakharov. On November 22, 1955, a Tu-16 dropped a bomb with a design power of 3.6 megatons over the Semipalatinsk test site. During these tests there were deaths, the radius of destruction reached 350 km, and Semipalatinsk suffered.
There was a nuclear arms race ahead. But in 1955 it became clear that the USSR had achieved nuclear parity with the United States.
