Igor Kourtchatov

Igor Vassilievitch Kourtchatov (in; January 8th 1903 – February 7th 1960) was a Soviet physicist /Russian. He was the chief of the project of the atomic bomb Soviet.

Biography

Kourchatov is born with Simsky Zavod , in the governorship of Oufa (now town of Sim , area of Tcheliabinsk. He studies physics at the University of State of the Crimea, and naval construction with the Polytechnic Université of Saint Petersbourg. In 1925, it passes to the institute physico-technique, where it works under Abram Fiodorovitch Ioffe on various problems involved in the Radioactivité. In 1932, it receives funds for its own research team in nuclear science, which builds the first Cyclotron of the USSR September 21st 1939.

Igor Kourtchatov and its pupil Georgy Flyorov discover the basic ideas of the chain reaction of uranium, and the concept of nuclear reactor in the years 1930. In 1942, Kourtchatov déclara : “ In the fission of the cores of one kilogram uranium, slackened energy must be equal to the explosion of 20 000 tons of trotyl ”. This advertisement will be practically checked during the atomic bombardment of Hiroshima.

When the war between the Germany and the USSR is declared in 1941, Kourtchatov changes subject of research, initially on the protection of the boats against the magnetic mines, then on the Blindage of the Tank S. In 1943, NKVD obtains the copy of a British report/ratio secret of the Commission MAUD concerning the feasibility of nuclear weapons, which leads Stalin to decide the beginning of a Soviet nuclear program (though with very limited means). Ioffe recommends Kourtchatov to Molotov and Kourtchatov is named, a little later the same year, director of the training scheme.

The Soviet project of atomic bomb remains of relatively weak priority, until information by the spy Klaus Fuchs, then the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki push Stalin to be acted. It gives the order to Kourtchatov to produce a bomb for 1948, and names pitiless the Lavrenty Beria directing of the project. The project occupies the town of Sarov in the area of Gorki (now area of Nijni-Novgorod) on the Volga, and re-elects it Arzamas-16 . The team (which includes/understands other famous Soviet nuclear scientists, like Iouli Borisovitch Khariton and Yakov Borisovich Zel' dovich) is helped as well by publications of the government of the the United States as by extra informations coming from Fuchs, but Kourtchatov and Beria (fearing that this information is only of the misinformation) insist that their physicists remake all the tests by themselves. Beria, in particular, uses the information like external checking on the conclusions of its teams.

The August 29th 1949, the team explodes “ First flash ”, its device initial test (a bomb with implosion with the Plutonium) on the nuclear Polygon of Semipalatinsk. Kourtchatov will make the remark later that its principal feeling at this time was the relief, because it was convinced that, if the weapon had not functioned, Stalin would have made it shoot.

Later, Kourtchatov worked on the Soviet program of Bombe H (1953), but then it worked on the peaceful uses of the nuclear engineering and made a campaign against the tests of atomic bombs.

During the program of the bomb has, Kourtchatov the Jura which it would not cut the beard before success, but it will continue to raise all the life a large beard (often crossed in an eccentric way), which was worth the nickname of “&thinsp to him; The barbe ”. Kourtchatov dies in Moscow in 1960 of a cerebral thrombosis.

It is buried in the wall of the the Kremlin.

External bonds

PBS documentary : '' Citizen Kurchatov ''
Biography of Igor Kourtchatov
Annotated bibliography off Igor Kurchatov from the Alsos DIGITAL Library

References

Dark Sun: The Making Off The Hydrogen Bomb by Richard Rhodos (ISBN 0-684-82414-0)

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