The first nuclear tests in the USSR. The test of the atomic bomb in the USSR is the basis for the creation of a nuclear shield. Semipalatinsk test site

Now nuclear capability some countries are simply amazing. In this area, the laurels of superiority belong to the United States. This power has the size nuclear arsenal is more than 5 thousand units. Has begun nuclear age more than 70 years ago, after the first test took place atomic bomb in New Mexico at the Alamogordo test site. This event marked the beginning of the era atomic weapons.
Since then, 2062 more nuclear bombs have been tested in the world. Of these, 1032 tests were conducted by the USA (1945-1992), 715 by the USSR (1949-1990), 210 by France (1960-1996), 45 each by the UK (1952-1991) and China (1964-1996), 6 each - India (1974-1998) and Pakistan (1998), and 3 - DPRK (2006, 2009, 2013).

Reasons for the creation of a nuclear bomb

The first steps towards the creation of nuclear weapons were taken in 1939. The main reason for this was the activity Nazi Germany who were preparing for war. Several people considered the idea of ​​creating a weapon mass destruction. This fact led to the anxiety of the opponents of the Hitler regime and served as the reason for an appeal to US President Franklin Roosevelt.

Project history

In 1939, Roosevelt was approached by several scientists. They were Albert Einstein, Leo Szilard, Edward Teller and Eugene Wigner. In their letter, they expressed concern about the development in Germany powerful bomb new kind. Scientists were afraid that Germany would create a bomb earlier, which could bring destruction on a huge scale. It was also said in the message that thanks to research in the field of atomic physics it became possible to use the effect of the decay of the atom to create atomic weapons.
The President of the United States treated the message with due attention, and by his order a uranium committee was created. On October 21, 1939, at a meeting, it was decided to use uranium and plutonium as raw materials for the bomb. The project developed very slowly and at first was only exploratory in nature. This continued almost until 1941.
Scientists did not like this slow progress, and on March 7, 1940, another letter was sent on behalf of Albert Einstein to Franklin Roosevelt. There are reports that Germany is showing a strong interest in creating a new powerful weapon. Thanks to this, the process of creating a bomb by the Americans accelerated, because in this case there was already a more serious question - a question of survival. Who knows what could have happened if the German scientists, during the Second World War, had created the bomb first.
The nuclear program was approved by the President of the United States on October 9, 1941 and was called the Manhattan Project. The project was carried out by the United States in cooperation with Canada and the UK.
The work was carried out in complete secrecy. In this regard, he was given such a name. Initially, they wanted to call it “Development of Substitute Materials”, which literally translates as “Development of Alternative Materials”. It was clear that such a name could attract unwanted interest from the outside, and therefore he received the optimal name. For the construction of the complex for the implementation of the program, the Manhattan Engineering District was created, from where the name of the project comes from.
There is another version of the origin of the name. It is believed that it came from New York Manhattan, where Columbia University is located. At an early stage of work, most of the research was carried out in it.
Work on the project took place with the participation of more than 125 thousand people. A huge amount of material, industrial and financial resources. In total, $ 2 billion was spent on the creation and testing of the bomb. The best minds of the country worked on the creation of weapons.
Practical work on the creation of the first nuclear bomb started in 1943. In Los Alamos (New Mexico), Hartford (Washington) and Oak Ridge (Tennessee), research institutes in the field of nuclear physics, chemistry, and biology were established.
The first three atomic bombs were created in mid-1945. They differed in the type of action (cannon, gun and implosive type) and in the type of substance (uranium and plutonium).

Preparing for the bomb test

To conduct the first test of the atomic bomb, the place was selected in advance. For this, a sparsely populated region of the country was chosen. An important condition was the absence of Indians in the area. The reasons for this were complicated relationship between the leadership of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the leadership of the Manhattan Project. As a result, at the end of 1944, the Alamogordo area, which is located in the state of New Mexico, was chosen.
Planning for the operation began in 1944. She was given the code name "Trinity" (Trinity). In preparation for the test, the option of the bomb not working was considered. In this case, a steel container was ordered, which is able to withstand the explosion of a conventional bomb. This was done so that, in the event of a negative result, at least part of the plutonium was preserved, and also to prevent contamination by it. environment.
The bomb was codenamed "Gadget". It was mounted on a steel tower 30 meters high. Two plutonium hemispheres were installed in the bomb at the last moment.

The first atomic bomb explosion in human history

The explosion was planned to take place on July 16, 1945 at 4:00 am local time. But it had to be carried through weather. The rain stopped and at 5:30 an explosion occurred.
As a result of the explosion, the steel tower evaporated, and in its place a crater with a diameter of about 76 meters was formed. The light from the explosion could be seen at a distance of about 290 kilometers. The sound spread over a distance of about 160 kilometers. In this regard, misinformation about the explosion of ammunition had to be spread. The mushroom cloud rose to a height of 12 kilometers in five minutes. It consisted of radioactive substances, iron vapor and several tons of dust. After the operation, environmental contamination with radiation was observed at a distance of 160 kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion. A five-meter iron pipe with a diameter of 10 centimeters, which was concreted and reinforced with stretch marks, also evaporated at a distance of 150 meters.
The results of the Manhattan Project could be considered successful. The main participants were adequately rewarded. Scientists from Canada, Great Britain and the USA, emigrants from Germany and Denmark took part in it. It was this project that marked the beginning of the atomic era.
Today, many powers have an impressive atomic arsenal, but, fortunately, history remembers only two cases of the use of nuclear bombs against humanity - the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945.

Since the first atomic explosion, codenamed Trinity, on July 16, 1945, almost two thousand atomic bomb tests have been carried out, and most of of which took place in the 60s and 70s.
When this technology was new, testing was done frequently, and it was quite a spectacle.

All of them led to the development of newer and more powerful nuclear weapons. But since the 1990s governments different countries began to limit future tests - take, for example, the US moratorium and the UN treaty on a comprehensive nuclear test ban.

A selection of photographs from the first 30 years of atomic bomb testing:

Test nuclear explosion Upshot-Knothole Grable in Nevada on May 25, 1953. A 280mm nuclear projectile was fired from the M65 cannon, detonated in the air - about 150 meters above the ground - and produced an explosion with a yield of 15 kilotons. (U.S. Department of Defense)

Open wiring of a nuclear device codenamed The Gadget (the unofficial name of the Trinity project) - the first test atomic explosion. The device was prepared for the explosion, which occurred on July 16, 1945. (U.S. Department of Defense)

The shadow of Los Alamos National Laboratory director Jay Robert Oppenheimer overseeing the assembly of the Gadget projectile. (U.S. Department of Defense)

The 200-ton Jumbo steel container used in the Trinity project was made to recover plutonium if the explosive did not start a chain reaction. As a result, Jumbo was not useful, but he was placed near the epicenter to measure the effects of the explosion. Jumbo survived the explosion, but the same cannot be said for its supporting frame. (U.S. Department of Defense)

The growing fireball and blast wave of the Trinity explosion 0.025 seconds after the explosion on July 16, 1945. (U.S. Department of Defense)

Long exposure photo of the Trinity explosion a few seconds after detonation. (U.S. Department of Defense)

Fireball "fungus" of the first atomic explosion in the world. (U.S. Department of Defense)

The US military watches the explosion during Operation Crossroads on Bikini Atoll on July 25, 1946. It was the fifth atomic explosion after the first two test and two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (U.S. Department of Defense)

A nuclear mushroom and a column of spray into the sea during a nuclear bomb test on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. It was the first underwater test atomic explosion. After the explosion, several former warships ran aground. (AP Photo)

A huge nuclear mushroom after the bombing of Bikini Atoll on July 25, 1946. The dark dots in the foreground are ships placed specifically in the path of the blast wave to test what it will do to them. (AP Photo)

On November 16, 1952, a B-36H bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the northern part of Runit Island in Eniwetok Atoll. The result was an explosion with a capacity of 500 kilotons and a diameter of 450 meters. (U.S. Department of Defense)

Operation Greenhouse took place in the spring of 1951. It consisted of four explosions in the Pacific nuclear test site in the Pacific Ocean. This is a photo of the third test, codenamed "George", conducted on May 9, 1951. It became the first explosion in which deuterium and tritium were burned. Power - 225 kilotons. (U.S. Department of Defense)

The "rope tricks" of a nuclear explosion, captured less than one millisecond after the explosion. During Operation Tumbler Snapper in 1952, this nuclear device was suspended 90 meters above the Nevada desert on mooring cables. As the plasma spread, the radiated energy overheated and vaporized the wires above the fireball, resulting in these "spikes". (U.S. Department of Defense)

During Operation Upshot Knothole, a group of dummies were planted in the dining room of a house to test the effect of a nuclear explosion on houses and people. March 15, 1953. (AP Photo/Dick Strobel)

That's what happened to them after the nuclear explosion. (U.S. Department of Defense)

In the same house number two, on the second floor, there was another mannequin on the bed. A 90-meter steel tower is visible in the window of the house, on which a nuclear bomb will soon explode. The purpose of the test explosion is to show people what would happen if a nuclear explosion occurred in an American city. (AP Photo/Dick Strobel)

A damaged bedroom, windows and blankets that disappeared to nowhere after the atomic bomb test explosion on March 17, 1953. (U.S. Department of Defense)

Mannequins representing a typical American family in the living room of Test House No. 2 at the Nevada nuclear test site. (AP Photo)

The same "family" after the explosion. Someone was scattered all over the living room, someone just disappeared. (U.S. Department of Defense)

During Operation Plumb at the Nevada nuclear test site on August 30, 1957, a projectile detonated from a ball in the Yucca Flat desert at an altitude of 228 meters. (National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)

test explosion hydrogen bomb during Operation Redwing over Bikini Atoll on May 20, 1956. (AP Photo)

Ionization glow around the cooling fireball in the Yucca Desert at 4:30 am on July 15, 1957. (National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)

The flash of an exploding nuclear warhead from an air-to-air missile at 7:30 am on July 19, 1957 at Indian Springs Air Force Base, 48 km from the site of the explosion. In the foreground - the same aircraft"Scorpion". (National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)

The fireball of a Priscilla projectile on June 24, 1957, during a series of operations "Plumb". (National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)

NATO representatives watch the explosion during Operation Boltzmann on May 28, 1957. (National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)

The tail section of a U.S. Navy airship after a nuclear test in Nevada on August 7, 1957. The airship was hovering in free flight, more than 8 km from the epicenter of the explosion, when it was overtaken by the blast wave. There was no one in the airship. (National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)

Observers during Operation Hardtack I - Explosion thermonuclear bomb in 1958. (National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)

The Arkansas test is part of Operation Dominic, a series of more than 100 explosions in Nevada and the Pacific in 1962. (U.S. Department of Defense)

Part of the Fishbowl Bluegill high-altitude nuclear test series - a 400 kiloton explosion in the atmosphere, at an altitude of 48 km above Pacific Ocean. View from above. October 1962 (U.S. Department of Defense)

Rings around a nuclear mushroom during the Yeso test project in 1962. (U.S. Department of Defense)

Sedan Crater was formed by the explosion of 100 kilotons of explosives at a depth of 193 meters under loose desert deposits in Nevada on July 6, 1962. The crater turned out to be 97 meters deep and 390 meters in diameter. (National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office)

Photo of the French government's nuclear explosion on Mururoa Atoll in 1971. (AP Photo)

The same nuclear explosion on the Mururoa atoll. (Pierre J. / CC BY NC SA)

The Survivor City was built 2286 meters from the epicenter of a 29 kiloton nuclear explosion. The house remained almost intact. The "survival city" consisted of houses, office buildings, shelters, sources of electricity, communications, radio stations and "living" vans. The test, codenamed Apple II, took place on May 5, 1955. (U.S. Department of Defense)

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A democratic form of government must be established in the USSR.

Vernadsky V.I.

The atomic bomb in the USSR was created on August 29, 1949 (the first successful launch). Academician Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov supervised the project. The period of development of atomic weapons in the USSR lasted from 1942, and ended with a test on the territory of Kazakhstan. This violated the US monopoly on such weapons, because since 1945 the only nuclear power they were. The article is devoted to describing the history of the emergence of the Soviet nuclear bomb, as well as characterizing the consequences of these events for the USSR.

History of creation

In 1941, representatives of the USSR in New York conveyed to Stalin information that a meeting of physicists was taking place in the United States, which was devoted to the development of nuclear weapons. Soviet scientists of the 1930s also worked on the study of the atom, the most famous was the splitting of the atom by scientists from Kharkov, led by L. Landau. However, before real application in armament, things did not reach. In addition to the United States, Nazi Germany worked on this. At the end of 1941, the United States began its atomic project. Stalin found out about this at the beginning of 1942 and signed a decree on the creation of a laboratory in the USSR to create an atomic project, Academician I. Kurchatov became its head.

There is an opinion that the work of US scientists was accelerated by the secret developments of German colleagues who ended up in America. In any case, in the summer of 1945 at the Potsdam Conference new president United States G. Truman informed Stalin about the completion of work on a new weapon - the atomic bomb. Moreover, to demonstrate the work of American scientists, the US government decided to test a new weapon in battle: on August 6 and 9, bombs were dropped on two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was the first time that humanity learned about a new weapon. It was this event that forced Stalin to speed up the work of his scientists. I. Kurchatov summoned Stalin and promised to fulfill any requirements of the scientist, if only the process went as quickly as possible. Moreover, a state committee was created under the Council of People's Commissars, which oversaw the Soviet nuclear project. It was headed by L. Beria.

Development has moved to three centers:

1. Design Bureau of the Kirov Plant, working on the creation of special equipment.
2. Diffuse plant in the Urals, which was supposed to work on the creation of enriched uranium.
3. Chemical and metallurgical centers where plutonium was studied. This element was used in the first nuclear bomb Soviet sample.

In 1946, the first Soviet unified nuclear center was established. It was a secret object Arzamas-16, located in the city of Sarov (Nizhny Novgorod region). In 1947 the first nuclear reactor, at an enterprise near Chelyabinsk. In 1948, a secret training ground was created on the territory of Kazakhstan, near the city of Semipalatinsk-21. It was here that on August 29, 1949, the first explosion of the Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1 was organized. This event was held in top secret, however, American Pacific aviation was able to record a sharp increase in radiation levels, which was evidence of testing a new weapon. Already in September 1949, G. Truman announced the presence of an atomic bomb in the USSR. Officially, the USSR admitted to having these weapons only in 1950.

There are several main consequences of the successful development of atomic weapons by Soviet scientists:

1. Loss of US status united state with atomic weapons. This not only equalized the USSR with the USA in military power, but also forced the latter to think over their every military step, since now it was necessary to fear for the response of the USSR leadership.
2. The presence of atomic weapons in the USSR secured its status as a superpower.
3. After the United States and the USSR were equalized in the presence of atomic weapons, the race for their number began. States spent huge finances to outperform the competitor. Moreover, attempts began to create even more powerful weapons.
4. These events served as the start nuclear race. Many countries have started investing resources to complete the list nuclear states and ensure your safety.

August 29, 1949 at 7 am Moscow time at the Semipalatinsk training ground No. 2 of the Ministry Armed Forces successfully tested the first Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1.

The first Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1 was created at KB-11 (now the Russian Federal Nuclear Center, VNIIEF) under the scientific supervision of Igor Vasilievich Kurchatov and Yuli Borisovich Khariton. In 1946, Yu. B. Khariton drew up the terms of reference for the development of an atomic bomb, structurally reminiscent of the American Fat Man bomb. The RDS-1 bomb was a plutonium aviation atomic bomb of a characteristic “drop-shaped” shape with a mass of 4.7 tons, a diameter of 1.5 m and a length of 3.3 m.

Front atomic explosion the operability of systems and mechanisms of the bomb when dropped from an aircraft was successfully tested without a plutonium charge. On August 21, 1949, 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 military product. Kurchatov, in accordance with the instructions of L.P. Beria, ordered the testing of RDS-1 on August 29 at 8 am local time.

On the night of August 29, the charge was assembled, and the final installation was completed by 3 o'clock in the morning. Over the next three hours the charge was raised to the test tower, equipped with fuses and connected to a subversive circuit. Members of the special committee L.P. Beria, M.G. Pervukhin and V.A. Makhnev supervised the progress of the final operations. However, due to the worsening weather, it was decided to carry out all the work provided for by the approved regulations with a shift one hour earlier.

At 6:35 a.m. the operators turned on the power of the automation system, and at 6:48. the test field machine was turned on. Exactly at 7 am on August 29, the first atomic bomb was successfully tested at the Semipalatinsk test site. Soviet Union. In 20 minutes. after the explosion, two tanks equipped with lead shielding were sent to the center of the field to conduct radiation reconnaissance and inspect the center of the field.

On October 28, 1949, L.P. Beria reported to I.V. Stalin on the results of testing the first atomic bomb. For the successful development and testing of the atomic bomb, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 29, 1949, she was awarded orders and medals of the USSR large group leading researchers, designers, technologists; many were awarded the title of laureates of the Stalin Prize, and the direct developers of the nuclear charge - the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

Lit .: Andryushin I. A., Chernyshev A. K., Yudin Yu. A. Taming the core: pages of the history of nuclear weapons and nuclear infrastructure of the USSR. Sarov, 2003; Goncharov G. A., Ryabev L. D. On the creation of the first domestic bomb // nuclear project THE USSR. Documents and materials. Book. 6. M., 2006. S. 33; Gubarev B. White archipelago: some little-known pages from the history of the creation of the A-bomb // Science and Life. 2000. No. 3; Nuclear tests of the USSR. Sarov, 1997. T. 1.

When Lawrence began to pester Oppenheimer with questions about what he was thinking at the time of the explosion, the creator of the atomic bomb looked darkly at the journalist and quoted lines from the sacred Indian book Bhagavad Gita to him:

If the shine of a thousand suns [mountains]
Flashes together in the sky
Man becomes Death
Earth threat.

On the same day at dinner, amid the painful silence of his colleagues, Kistyakovsky said:

I am sure that before the end of the world, in the last millisecond of the existence of the Earth, last man will see what we have seen today." Ovchinnikov V.V. Hot ash. - M.: Pravda, 1987, pp. 103-105.

"On the evening of July 16, 1945, just before the opening of the Potsdam Conference, a dispatch was delivered to Truman, which, even after decoding, was read as a doctor's report. : "The operation was done this morning. The diagnosis is still incomplete, but the results seem satisfactory and already exceed expectations. Dr. Groves is pleased." Ovchinnikov V.V. Hot ash. - M.: Pravda, 1987, p.108.

On this topic:

On July 9, 1972, an underground nuclear explosion was staged in the densely populated Kharkov region to extinguish a burning oil rig. gas well. Today, only a few people know that a nuclear explosion was arranged near Kharkov. Its explosive power was only three times less than that of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

On September 22, 2001, the United States tightened sanctions against India and Pakistan, imposed in 1998 after these countries tested nuclear weapons. In 2002, these countries were on the brink of nuclear war.

April 1, 2009 the world welcomed the statement of the Presidents Russian Federation and United States of America Barack Obama commitment to the cause of a world free of nuclear weapons, and the fulfillment of obligations under article VI of the non-proliferation treaty with a view to further reducing and limiting strategic offensive weapons.

September 26 - Day of Struggle for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. The only absolute guarantee that nuclear weapons will never be used is their total elimination. This was stated General Secretary UN Ban Ki-moon on the occasion international day struggle for the elimination of nuclear weapons, which is celebrated on September 26.

"Convinced that nuclear disarmament and the total elimination of nuclear weapons are the only absolute guarantee against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons", the General Assembly proclaimed 26 September "International Day for the Struggle for complete liquidation nuclear weapons", which is designed to contribute to the implementation of the total elimination of nuclear weapons by mobilizing international efforts. First proposed in October 2013 in a resolution (A/RES/68/32) was the result of a meeting at highest level on nuclear disarmament held in the UN General Assembly on September 26, 2013. The International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons was celebrated for the first time in