Scientific search under the pressure of high responsibility: development of the technology of electromagnetic isotope separation in the framework of the USSR Atomic project

Abstract

One of the ways to obtain nuclear explosives for the manufacture of the first atomic bombs was the separation of uranium isotopes by electromagnetic (mass spectrographic) method. The theoretical justification and experimental separation of uranium isotopes by this method was carried out by L. A. Artsimovich in the Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences. By the middle of 1945, L. A. Artsimovich had obtained results at the experimental facility indicating the possibility of stable enrichment of uranium with the U-235 isotope using this method. Having the results of the experiments, the Design Bureau at the “Electrosila” plant (D. V. Efremov), with the participation of the Research Vacuum Institute (S. A. Vekshinsky) and the “A” Institute (M. Ardenne), developed a project of an industrial multi-chamber installation for electromagnetic separation of uranium isotopes SU-20. Such an installation was manufactured and put into operation at the newly created plant in the Urals, which allowed in 1951 to obtain the necessary amount of uranium-235 for the RDS-3 atomic bomb. After 1952, the technology of electromagnetic separation was no more used for the separation of uranium isotopes due to the improvement of more productive equipment for gas-diffusion separation of isotopes. The equipment of the electromagnetic isotope separation plant built in the Urals was used to produce lithium-6, needed to equip the first thermonuclear charge, which was successfully tested in 1953. In the next years, the electromagnetic isotope separation plant was involved in the manufacture of isotope products for scientific, technical and medical applications at wide range of utilization in Russia and abroad.