The world of the atom is so fantastic that the root breaking of the usual concepts about space and time is required for his understanding. Atoms are so small that if a drop of water could be increased to the size of the Earth, then each atom in this drop was less orange. In fact, one drop of water consists of 6000 billion billion (60,000,000,000,000,000,000) hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Nevertheless, despite its microscopic dimensions, the atom has a structure to some extent similar to the structure of our solar system. In his incomprehensibly small center, the radius of which is less than one trillion centimeter, is a relatively huge "sun" - the core of the atom.

Crocheted "planets" rotate around this atomic "sun" - electrons. The core consists of two main building bricks of the universe - protons and neutrons (they have a unifying name - nucleons). Electron and proton - charged particles, and the amount of charge in each of them is exactly the same, but the charges differ by sign: the proton is always charged positively, and the electron is negative. Neutron does not carry an electric charge and, as a result, has very greater permeability.

In the nuclear scale of measurements, the proton and neutron mass is taken per unit. The atomic weight of any chemical element is therefore depends on the number of protons and neutrons concluded in its core. For example, a hydrogen atom, the core of which consists of only one proton, has an atomic mass equal to 1. Helium atom, with a kernel of two protons and two neutrons, has an atomic mass equal to 4.

The nuclei of the atoms of the same element always contain the same number of protons, but the number of neutrons can be different. Atoms having a nuclei with the same number of protons, but differ in the number of neutrons and related to the varieties of the same element are called isotopes. To distinguish them from each other, the number equal to the element is attributed to the element symbol of all particles in the kernel of this isotope.

A question may arise: why the atom's kernel is not falling apart? After all, the protons included in it are electrically charged particles with the same charge, which should be repelled from each other with great strength. This is explained by the fact that inside the nucleus there are also the so-called internal forces, attracting the kernel particles to each other. These forces compensate for the strength of proton repulsion and do not give the kernel spontaneously fly out.

Initial forces are very large, but they act only at a very close distance. Therefore, the kernels of heavy elements consisting of hundreds of nucleons are unstable. The kernel particles are here in the continuous movement (within the volume of the kernel), and if they add them some additional amount of energy, they can overcome the internal forces - the kernel is divided into parts. The magnitude of this excess energy is called excitation energy. Among the isotopes of heavy elements there are those who, as it were, are on the very edge of the self-sustaining. Only a small "push", for example, a simple hit in the neutron kernel (and it should not even accelerate to high speed), so that the reaction of nuclear fission. Some of these "dividing" isotopes later learned how to get artificially. In nature, there is only one such isotope - it is uranium-235.

Uranus was opened in 1783 by Claprontom, who highlighted it from the uranium fruit and called the Uranian open planet in honor of the recently open planet. As it turned out in the future, it was actually not uranium himself, but its oxide. Pure uranium - metal silver-white color - was obtained
Only in 1842 Peligo. The new element did not possess any wonderful properties and did not attract attention until 1896, when Becquille opened the phenomenon of radioactivity of uranium salts. After that, Uranus became the object of scientific research and experiments, but practical applications still did not have.

When in the first third of the 20th century, the structure of the atomic nuclei in the first third of the XX century, they first tried to carry out the long-standing dream of Alchemists - they tried to turn one chemical element in another. In 1934, French researchers Frederick and Irene Zolio-Curie reported to the French Academy of Sciences on the following experience: when bombing aluminum plates aluminum particles (nuclei of the helium atom), aluminum atoms turned into phosphorus atoms, but not ordinary, and radioactive, which turned their turn In a steady isotope of silicon. Thus, an aluminum atom, attaching one proton and two neutrons, turned into a heavier silicon atom.

This experience brought to the idea that if the neutron of the core of the most severe from the elements existing in the nature of the elements - uranium is, then you can get such an element that in vivo there is not. In 1938, German chemists Otto Gan and Fritz Strasmann were repeated in general terms the experience of Jolio-Curie's spouses, taking uranium instead of aluminum. The results of the experiment turned out to be at all that they expected - instead of a new super heavy element with a massive number more than uranium, Gan and Strasman, got light elements from the middle part of the periodic system: barium, krypton, bromine and some others. The experimenters themselves could not explain the observed phenomenon. Only next year, the physicist Liza Maitnener, who Gan informed about his difficulties, found the right explanation to the observed phenomenon, suggesting that during the shelling of uranium neutrons there is a splitting (division) of its kernel. At the same time, the kernels of lighter elements were to form (this was where the barium, crypton and other substances came from), as well as 2-3 free neutron. Further research made it possible to clarify the picture of what is happening in detail.

Natural uranium consists of a mixture of three isotopes with masses 238, 234 and 235. The main amount of uranium falls on isotope 238, in the core of which includes 92 proton and 146 neutrons. Uranium-235 is only 1/140 natural uranium (0, 7% (it has a proton and 143 neutron core 92), and uranium-234 (92 proton, 142 neutrons) only - 1/17500 from the total mass of uranium (0 , 006%. The least stable from these isotopes is uranium-235.

From time to time, the core of its atoms is spontaneously divided into parts, as a result of which smaller elements of the periodic system are formed. The process is accompanied by the release of two or three free neutrons, which rushing at a huge speed - about 10 thousand km / s (they are called rapid neutrons). These neutrons can fall into other uranium cores, causing nuclear reactions. Each isotope behaves in this case in different ways. Uranium-238 cores in most cases simply capture these neutrons without any further transformations. But in about one case, out of five when a rapid neutron collision with the isotope-238 core, a curious nuclear reaction occurs: one of the neutrons of uranium-238 eats an electron, turning into a proton, that is, uranium isotope appeals to more
Heavy element - neptune-239 (93 proton + 146 neutrons). But neptunny is unstable - after a few minutes, one of its neutrons emits an electron, turning into a proton, after which the non-dullness isotope refers to the next element of the periodic system - Plutonium-239 (94 proton + 145 neutrons). If the neutron falls into the core of unstable uranium-235, then the division immediately occurs - atoms are disintegrating with the emission of two or three neutrons. It is clear that in natural uranium, the majority of atoms of which are of the isotope-238, no visible effects have no visible reaction - all free neutrons will be in the end absorbed by this isotope.

Well, if you imagine a sufficiently massive piece of uranium, which is entirely consisting of isotope-235?

Here the process will go differently: neutrons that allocated in the division of several cores, in turn, falling into the neighboring nuclei, cause their division. As a result, a new portion of neutrons is distinguished, which splits the following kernels. Under favorable conditions, this reaction is avalanche-like and is called a chain reaction. To begin with, there may be a fairly considerable number of bombarding particles.

Indeed, let uranium-235 bombard only 100 neutrons. They will share 100 uranium nuclei. In this case, 250 new second-generation neutrons (on average 2, 5 per division). The neutrons of the second generation will produce 250 divisions at which 625 neutrons will be separated. In the next generation, it will become equal to 1562, then 3906, further 9670, etc. The number of divisions will increase infinitely if the process does not stop.

However, the only minor part of neutrons falls into the nuclei of atoms. The rest, rapidly rushing between them, are carried into the surrounding space. A self-sustaining chain reaction may occur only in a sufficiently large array of uranium-235, which possess, as they say the critical mass. (This mass under normal conditions is 50 kg.) It is important to note that the division of each nucleus is accompanied by the allocation of a huge amount of energy, which turns out to be about 300 million times more energy spent on cleavage! (It is estimated that with the full division of 1 kg of uranium-235, as much heat is distinguished as the combustion of 3 thousand tons of coal.)

This tremendous splash of energy exempted in a matter of little, manifests itself as an explosion of monstrous power and underlies the actions of nuclear weapons. But in order for this weapon to become a reality, it is necessary that the charge consists not from natural uranium, and from a rare isotope - 235 (such uranium is called enriched). Later it was found that pure plutonium is also a dividing material and can be used in atomic charge instead of uranium-235.

All of these important discoveries were made on the eve of World War II. Soon in Germany and other countries began secret work on the creation of an atomic bomb. In the US, this problem was engaged in 1941. The entire complex of work was assigned the name "Manhattan Project".

The administrative management of the project was carried out by General Groves, and Scientific - Professor of the University of California Robert Oppenheimer. Both well understood the huge complexity of the task facing them. Therefore, the first concern of Oppenheimer was the acquisition of a highly intelectual scientific team. In the US, then there were many physicists emigrated from fascist Germany. It was not easy to attract them to creating weapons aimed against their former homeland. Oppenheimer personally spoke with everyone, putting the power of his charm into the move. Soon he managed to assemble a small group of theorists, whom he was jokingly called "luminai". And in fact, it included the largest experts of the time in physics and chemistry. (Among them are 13 laureates of the Nobel Prize, including Bor, Fermi, Frank, Chadwick, Lawrence.) In addition to them, there were many other specialists of the most different profile.

The US government was not bought by expenses, and work from the very beginning took a grand scale. In 1942, the world's largest research laboratory in Los Alamos was founded. The population of this scientific city soon reached 9 thousand people. In terms of scientists, the scope of scientific experiments, the number of specialists attracted to the work and workers of the Los Alamos laboratory did not have equal in world history. Manhattan Project had its police, counterintelligence, communication system, warehouses, villages, plants, laboratories, their own colossal budget.

The main objective of the project consisted in obtaining a sufficient number of dividing material from which several atomic bombs could be created. In addition to uranium-235 charge for a bomb, as already mentioned, an artificial element of plutonium-239 could serve, that is, the bomb could be both uranium and plutonium.

Groves and Oppenheimer agreed that the work should be carried out simultaneously in two directions, since it is impossible to decide which one will be more promising. Both methods were fundamentally different from each other: uranium-235 accumulation was to be carried out by separating from the main mass of natural uranium, and plutonium could be obtained only as a result of a controlled nuclear reaction during uranium-238 neutron irradiation. And that and the other path seemed to be unusually difficult and did not promise lung solutions.

In fact, how can you separate from each other two isotopes, which only slightly differ in their weight and chemically behave exactly the same way? Neither science nor the technique has never come across such a problem. Plutonium production also at first seemed very problematic. Prior to this, the entire experience of nuclear transformations was reduced to several laboratory experiments. Now it was necessary to master the production of plutonium kilograms, to develop and create a special installation for this, a nuclear reactor, and learn how to manage the course of a nuclear reaction.

And there and here it was to resolve a whole complex of complex tasks. Therefore, the "Manhattan Project" consisted of several subprojects, headed by prominent scientists. Oppenheimer himself was the head of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. Lawrence headed the University of California Radiation Laboratory. Fermi was conducted in Chicago University Studies for creating a nuclear reactor.

At first, the most important problem was the receipt of uranium. Before the war, this metal was actually not applications. Now that it took immediately in huge quantities, it turned out that there is no industrial method of its production.

The company "Westinghouse" took up his development and quickly achieved success. After cleaning the uranium resin (in this form, uranium is found in nature) and obtaining uranium oxide, it was converted into tetrafluoride (UF4), from which metal uranium was distinguished by electrolysis. If at the end of 1941 at the disposal of American scientists there were only a few grams of metallic uranium, then in November 1942, its industrial production at the Westinguz factories reached 6,000 pounds per month.

At the same time, work was working on the creation of a nuclear reactor. The production process of plutonium was actually reduced to the irradiation of uranium neutron rods, as a result of which part of the Uranium-238 was supposed to contact Plutonium. The neutron sources at the same time could be divided by uranium-235 atoms, scattered in sufficient quantities among uranium-238 atoms. But in order to maintain constant reproduction of neutrons, a chain reaction of dividing Uranium-235 atoms was to begin. Meanwhile, as already mentioned, the uranium-235 atom accounted for 140 uranium-238 atoms. It is clear that the neutrons flying in all sides were much more likely to meet them on their way. That is, a huge number of outlooking neutrons turned out to be without any benefit absorbed by the main isotope. Obviously, under such conditions, the chain reaction could not. How to be?

It was first that without the separation of two isotopes, the operation of the reactor is not possible at all, but one important circumstance was established soon: it turned out that uranium-235 and uranium-238 are susceptible to neutrons of different energies. The core of the uranium-235 atom can be neutron with a relatively small energy, which has a speed of about 22 m / s. Such slow neutrons are not captured by uranium-238 kernels - for this should have a speed of about hundreds of thousand meters per second. In other words, uranium-238 is powerless to prevent the beginning and the movement of the chain reaction in Uranium-235 caused by neutrons, slowed down to extremely low speeds - no more than 22 m / s. This phenomenon was opened by the Italian Fermi physicist, who since 1938 lived in the United States and led the work on the creation of the first reactor. The Fermi retarder decided to apply graphite. According to its calculations, the neutrons flying out of uranium-235, passing through a layer of graphite in 40 cm, had to reduce their speed to 22 m / s and begin a self-sustaining chain reaction in Uranium-235.

Another moderator could serve as the so-called "heavy" water. Since hydrogen atoms included in it, in size and mass are very close to neutrons, they could best slow them. (With rapid neutrons, approximately the same thing is that with the balls: if a small ball is hitting the big, it rolls back, almost without losing speed, when you meet with a small ball, he transmits him a significant part of its energy - just as neutron with an elastic collision Jumps out of the heavy nucleus only slightly slowing down, and in a collision with the nuclei atoms of hydrogen, it very quickly loses all its energy.) However, ordinary water is not suitable for a slowdown, since its hydrogen tends to absorb neutrons. That is why for this purpose you should use deuterium, which is part of the "heavy" water.

In early 1942, under the leadership of Fermi in the premises of the tennis court, the construction of the first in the history of the nuclear reactor began under the western stands of the Chicago Stadium. All work scientists performed themselves. The reaction control can be carried out by the only way - adjusting the number of neutrons involved in the chain reaction. Fermi assumed to achieve this with the help of rods made from substances such as boron and cadmium, which strongly absorb neutrons. The retarder served graphite bricks, of which the physicists erected a column with a height of 3 m and width of 1, 2 m. Better blocks with uranium oxide were installed between them. About 46 tons of uranium oxide and 385 tons of graphite went to the entire design. To slow down the reaction, served in the reactor rods from cadmium and boron.

If this was not enough, then for insurance on a platform located above the reactor, there were two scientists with buckets filled with a solution of cadmium salts - they had to pour them to the reactor if the reaction came out from under control. Fortunately, this was not required. On December 2, 1942, Fermi ordered to push all control rods, and the experiment began. After four minutes, neutron counters began to click everything louder and louder. With each minute, the intensity of the neutron flux became greater. This said that a chain reaction is in the reactor. It continued for 28 minutes. Then Fermi gave a sign, and lowered rods stopped the process. So for the first time, a person freed the energy of the atomic nucleus and proved that he could control it in his will. Now there was no doubt that nuclear weapons are reality.

In 1943, the Fermi reactor was dismantled and transported to the Aragon National Laboratory (50 km from Chicago). Here was soon
Another nuclear reactor was built, in which heavy water was used as a retarder. It consisted of a cylindrical aluminum tank containing 6, 5 tons of heavy water, into which 120 rods from metal uranium, enclosed in an aluminum shell, was vertically immersed. Seven control rods were made of cadmium. Around the tank was located graphite reflector, then the screen from lead alloys and cadmium. The whole design was concrete shell with a wall thickness of about 2, 5 m.

Experiments on these experienced reactors confirmed the possibility of industrial production of plutonium.

The main center of the Manhattan Project soon became the town of Ok-Ridge in the Valley of the Tennessee River, the population of which for several months up to 79 thousand people rose. Here, in a short time, the first in history plant for the production of enriched uranium was built. Immediately in 1943, an industrial reactor was launched, generating plutonium. In February 1944, about 300 kg of uranium were removed from it every day, plutonium was obtained by chemical separation. (For this, plutonies were first dissolved, and then precipitated.) The purified uranium after that returned to the reactor. In the same year, the construction of a huge Hanford plant began in the south coast of the Columbia River, the construction of a huge Hamford plant began. Here there were three powerful atomic reactors, daily gave several hundred grams of plutonium.

In parallel, studies were under the development of the industrial process of uranium enrichment.

Having considered different options, Grove and Oppenheimer decided to focus on two methods: gasodiffusion and electromagnetic.

The gas diffusion method was based on the principle known as Grahham's law (it was first formulated in 1829 by the Scottish Chemist Thomas Graham and was developed in 1896 by the English physicist of Raili). In accordance with this law, if two gas, one of which is easier than the other, pass through a filter with negligible holes, then a slightly more light gas will be passed through it than heavy. In November 1942, Yuri and Dunning from Columbia University created a gas-diffusion method for the separation of uranium isotopes.

Since natural uranium is a solid, it was first turned into fluorine uranium (UF6). Then, this gas was passed through microscopic - the order of thousandth fractions of the millimeter - the holes in the filter partition.

Since the difference in the molar scales of gases was very small, the uranium-235 content increased after 1, 0002 times over the partition.

In order to increase the amount of uranium-235 even more, the mixture obtained is again passed through the partition, and the amount of uranium increases at 1, 0002 times again. Thus, to increase the content of uranium-235 to 99%, it was necessary to pass gas through 4,000 filters. It happened on a huge gasodiffusion factory in Ok Ridge.

In 1940, under the leadership of Ernst Lawrence, research began on the separation of uranium isotopes by electromagnetic method in the University of California. It was necessary to find such physical processes that would allow to separate isotopes using their mass differences. Lawrence attempted to divide the isotopes using the principle of mass spectrograph - the device with which the mass of atoms determine.

The principle of its action was reduced to the following: pre-ionized atoms accelerated the electric field, and then passed through the magnetic field in which they described the circles located in the plane perpendicular to the field direction. Since the radii of these trajectories were proportional to the mass, light ions were on circles of a smaller radius than heavy. If traps were placed on the path of atoms, then it was possible to collect different isotopes in this way.

Such was the method. In the laboratory conditions, he gave good results. But the construction of the installation on which the separation of isotopes could be carried out on an industrial scale turned out to be extremely difficult. However, Lawrence eventually managed to overcome all the difficulties. The result of his effort was the appearance of a canothron, which was installed on a giant factory in OK-Ridge.

This electromagnetic plant was built in 1943 and was hardly the most expensive brainchild of the Manhattan project. The Lawrence method requested a large number of complex, not yet developed devices associated with high voltage, high vacuum and strong magnetic fields. The scale of the costs were huge. Kalutron had a giant electromagnet, the length of which reached 75 m with a weight of about 4,000 tons.

Several thousand tons of silver wire went on the windings for this electromagnet.

All works (not counting the cost of silver in the amount of 300 million dollars, which the State Treasury provided only for time) cost $ 400 million. Only for electricity spent by Kalutron, the Ministry of Defense paid 10 million. Most of the equipment of the OK-RJ plant exceeded on the scale and accuracy of manufacturing everything that ever was developed in this field of technology.

But all these costs were not in vain. Considering a total of about 2 billion dollars, US scientists by 1944 created a unique uranium enrichment technology and plutonium production. Meanwhile, in the Los Alamos laboratory worked on the project of the bomb itself. The principle of its action was in general terms Clear for a long time ago: the dividing substance (plutonium or uranium-235) should be translated into a critical state at the moment of explosion (for the implementation of the chain reaction, the charge mass must even be more critical) and irradiated with a neutron beam, which attracted by itself the beginning of the chain reaction.

According to calculations, the critical mass of charge exceeded 50 kilograms, but it was able to significantly reduce. In general, several factors strongly affect the magnitude of the critical mass. The larger the surface area of \u200b\u200bthe charge - the greater the neutrons is useless to emit into the surrounding space. The smallest surface area has the sphere. Consequently, spherical charges, with other things being equal, have the smallest critical mass. In addition, the magnitude of the critical mass depends on the purity and type of dividing materials. It is inversely proportional to the square of the density of this material, which allows, for example, with an increase in the density halve, to reduce the critical mass four times. The desired degree of subcriticality can be obtained, for example, the seal of the dividing material due to the explosion of the charge of a conventional explosive, made in the form of a spherical shell surrounding the nuclear charge. The critical mass, in addition, can be reduced by surrounding the charge with a screen that reflects neutrons. Lead, beryllium, tungsten, natural uranium, iron and many others can be used as such a screen.

One of the possible structures of the atomic bomb consists of two slices of uranium, which, connecting, form a lot of more critical. In order to cause an explosion of a bomb, you need to bring them as quickly as possible. The second method is based on the use of an explosion converging. In this case, the flow of gases from a conventional explosive was sent to the focusing material located inside and compressed it until it reached the critical mass. The compound of charge and intensive irradiation with its neutrons, as already mentioned, causes a chain reaction, as a result of which, at the first second, the temperature increases to 1 million degrees. During this time, only about 5% of the critical mass was treated. The rest of the charge in the bombs of the early construction evaporated without
every benefit.

The first atomic bomb in history (she was given the name "Trinity") was collected in the summer of 1945. And on June 16, 1945, the first atomic explosion was produced at the atomic polygon in the desert of Alamogordo (New Mexico). The bomb was placed in the center of the landfill on top of the steel 30-meter tower. Around it at a high distance, registering equipment was placed. In 9 km was the observation point, and 16 km - team. At all witnesses of this event, the atomic explosion made a stunning impression. According to the description of eyewitnesses, there was a feeling that the set of suns joined at the same time illuminated the polygon. Then a huge fireball arose over the plain and a round cloud of dust and light began to rise to him.

Wrapped off from the ground, this fireball took off for a few seconds to a height of more than three kilometers. With each moment he began to grow in size, soon his diameter reached 1, 5 km, and he slowly rose to the stratosphere. Then the fiery ball gave way to a pillar of a smoke smoke, which pulled out a height of 12 km, taking the shape of a giant mushroom. All this was accompanied by a terrible rumble, from which the Earth was trembling. The power of the exploded bomb surpassed all expectations.

As soon as the radiation situation allowed, several Sherman tanks, laid out from the inside lead slabs, rushed to the explosion area. On one of them was Fermi, who was not tolerated to see the results of his work. A dead scorched land appeared to his eyes, on which all living things were destroyed within a radius of 1, 5 km. Sand shaped in a vitreous greenish crust that covered the earth. In a huge funnel, the disheveled residues of the steel support tower were lying. The power of the explosion was estimated at 20,000 tons of trotyl.

The next step was to be the combat use of the bomb against Japan, which, after the capitulation of fascist Germany, one continued the war with the United States and their allies. There were no launch vehicles then, so the bombardment was to be carried out from the aircraft. The components of the two bombs were with great caution delivered to the Indianapolis cruiser on Tinian Island, where the 509th United States Air Force Group was based. By type of charge and design, these bombs differed somewhat from each other.

The first bomb - "Baby" - was a large-sized aircraft bomb with an atomic charge from strongly enriched uranium-235. Its length was about 3 m, diameter - 62 cm, weight - 4, 1 tons.

The second bomb is "fat man" - with a charge of plutonium-239 had an egg-shaped shape with a large-sized stabilizer. Length of it
Made 3, 2 m, diameter 1, 5 m, weight - 4, 5 tons.

On August 6, the bomber B-29 "Enola Gay" Colonel Tibbets dropped the "baby" to the major Japanese city of Hiroshima. The bomb fell on the parachute and exploded, as was envisaged, at an altitude of 600 m from the ground.

The effects of the explosion were terrible. Even on the pilots themselves, the view of the peaceful city destroyed by them in one moment made an oppressive impression. Later, one of them admitted that they saw the worst thing this second that only a man could see.

For those who were on earth, what was happening resembled a genuine hell. First of all, a heat wave was held over Hiroshima. Its action lasted only a few moments, but it was so powerful that even the tile and quartz crystals and crystals in granite slabs turned into coal to coal at a distance of 4 km and, finally, the human bodies were so inclined that only the shadows on the pavement asphalt were left. or on the walls of houses. Then, from under the fiery ball, the monstrous impulse of the wind escaped and was rushed over the city at a speed of 800 km / h, despicable everything in its path. The house did not cut his furious on the house rushed like milk. In a gigantic circle, a single building remains with a diameter of 4 km. A few minutes after the explosion over the city, a black radioactive rain passed over the city - this moisture converted into pairs was condensed in the high layers of the atmosphere and fell to the ground in the form of large droplets mixed with radioactive dust.

After the rain, a new gust of the wind fell on the city, this time blowing in the direction of the epicenter. He was weaker than the first, but still enough strong to pull out the trees with the root. The wind blew a giant fire in which everything that could only burn. Of the 76 thousand buildings completely collapsed and burned out 55 thousand. Witnesses of this terrible disaster remembered people-torch, from which burnt clothing fell to the ground with the rags of the skin, and about the crowds of distraught people covered by terrible burns, which with scream rushed through the streets. In the air stood suffocating SMRAG from burned human meat. Everywhere there were people, dead and dying. There were many of those who are trembling and flipped and rushing in all directions, could not disassemble anything in the hassle around the chaos.

The unfortunate, which were from the epicenter at a distance of up to 800 m, for the fraction of seconds burned in the literal sense of the word - their insides were evaporated, and the bodies turned into lumps of smoking coal. Found from the epicenter at a distance of 1 km, were amazed with radiation disease in extremely severe form. After a few hours, they began the strongest vomiting, the temperature jumped to 39-40 degrees, shortness of breath and bleeding appeared. Then the skin poured on the skin, the composition of the blood changed dramatically, the hair fell out. After terrible suffering, usually on the second or third day, death fell.

In total, about 240 thousand people died from the explosion and radiation sickness. About 160 thousand received radiation disease in a lighter form - their painful death was delayed for several months or years. When the news of the catastrophe spread throughout the country, all Japan was paralyzed by fear. He still increased after August 9, the "Boxing Car" aircraft Major Suiney threw the second bomb on Nagasaki. There were also a few hundred thousand inhabitants and were injured here. Unable to withstand new weapons, the Japanese government capitulated - an atomic bomb put an end to the Second World War.

War is over. She lasted only six years, but managed to change the world and people almost beyond recognition.

Human civilization until 1939 and the human civilization after 1945 is straight unlike each other. There is many reasons for that, but one of the most important is the emergence of nuclear weapons. You can say without exaggerations that the shadow of Hiroshima lies at the entire second half of the XX century. She became a deep moral burn for many millions of people, as former contemporaries of this catastrophe, and born in decades after it. A modern person can no longer think about the world as they thought about it until August 6, 1945 - he clearly understands that this world can turn into nothing in a few moments.

A modern man cannot look at the war, since his grandfathers and great-grandfather watched - he reliably knows that this war will be the last, and it will not be either winners or defeated. The nuclear weapon imposed his imprint on all spheres of public life, and modern civilization cannot live according to the same laws that sixty or eighty years ago. No one understood this better than the creators of the atomic bomb.

"People of our planet , - wrote Robert Oppenheimer, - must unite. The horror and destruction, the last war sown, dictate this thought to us. Atomic bombs explosions proved her with all cruelty. Other people at another time have already spoken similar words - only about a friend of weapons and other wars. They did not succeed. But the one who today will say that these words are useless, misleading the transformations of history. We can not convince this. The results of our work do not leave other choice of humanity, except to create a combined world. The world based on legality and humanism. "

"I am not the easiest person - I noticed the American physicist Isididid Aizek Rabi. "But compared to Openerhimer, I am very and very simple." Robert Oppenheimer was one of the central figures of the twentieth century, the "complexity" itself, which absorbed the political and ethical contradictions of the country.

During World War II, a brilliant physicist Ažulius Robert Oppenheimer headed the development of American nuclear keys to create the first atomic bomb in the history of mankind. The scientist led a secluded and closed lifestyle, and it gave rise to suspicion of treason.

Atomic weapons - the result of the entire preceding development of science and technology. The discoveries that are directly related to its occurrence were made at the end of the XIX century. A huge role in the disclosure of the mystery of the atom was played by Research A. Becquer, Pierre Curie and Maria Sklodovskaya-Curie, E. Rostford, etc.

In early 1939, French physicist Jolio-Curie concluded that a chain reaction was possible, which would lead to an explosion of monstrous destructive power and that uranium could become a source of energy as a conventional explosive substance. This conclusion has become an impetus for developing nuclear weapons.

Europe was the eve of World War II, and the potential possession of such powerful weapons pushed militaristic circles to the fastest creation, but the problem of the problem of the presence of a large number of uranium ore for large-scale research. Physics, England, USA, Japan, understanding that, without a sufficient number of uranium ore, it is impossible to maintain work, the United States in September 1940, without a sufficient number of uranium ore, the United States has purchased a large number of required ore in Belgium, which allowed them to work on creating nuclear weapons in full swing.

From 1939 to 1945, more than two billion dollars was spent on the Manhattan project. In Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a huge uranium cleaning plant was built. H.C. Urey and Ernest O. Lawrence (Cyclotron Inventor) proposed a purification method based on the principle of gas diffusion with the subsequent magnetic separation of two isotopes. Gas centrifuge separated light uranium-235 from more severe uranium-238.

On the territory of the United States, in Los Alamos, in the deserted expanses of New Mexico, in 1942 the American Nuclear Center was created. A lot of scientists worked on the project, the main thing was Robert Oppenheimer. Under his beginning, the best minds of the time not only the United States and England were collected, but practically all Western Europe. A huge team worked on the creation of nuclear weapons, including 12 laureates of the Nobel Prize. Work in Los Alamos, where the laboratory was located, did not stop for a minute. In Europe, in the meantime, the Second World War, and Germany conducted mass bombings of the cities of England, which was dangerously engaged in the English Atomic Project "TUB ALLOYS", and England voluntarily transferred its development and leading scientists to the United States, which allowed the United States to take a leading position in the development of nuclear physics (creating nuclear weapons).

"The father of the atomic bomb," he at the same time was an enemy of the American nuclear policy. Wearing the title of one of the most prominent physicists of his time, with pleasure I studied the mysticism of the ancient Indian books. Communist, traveler and convinced American patriot, a very spiritual person, nevertheless was ready to betray his friends to defend against attacks of anti-communists. A scientist who developed a plan for the cause of the greatest damage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, cursed himself for "innocent blood on his hands."

Write a challenge about this contradictory person, but interesting, and the twentieth century is marked by a number of books about him. However, the saturated life of the scientist continues to attract biographers.

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

In 1928 he worked in Zurich and Leiden Universities. In the same year he returned to the United States. From 1929 to 1947, Oppenheimer taught at the University of California and the California Institute of Technology. From 1939 to 1945 actively participated in the work on the creation of an atomic bomb under the Manhattan project; Heading the Los Alamos Lab specially created for this.

In 1929, Opönheimer, an upward star of science, took off suggestions of two of several fantastic for the right to invite him universities. Spring semester He taught in a lively, young California Institute of Technology in Pasaden, and autumn and winter - at the University of California in Berkeley, where he became the first teacher of quantum mechanics. In fact, the scholar-erudite had to adapt some time, gradually reducing the level of discussion to the capabilities of his students. In 1936, he fell in love with Jean Taqlock, restless and prone to the change of mood a young woman, whose passionate idealism found a way out in communist activities. As many thinking of the people of that time, Openheimer studied the ideas of the left movement as one of the possible alternatives, although he did not enter the Communist Party that he had made his younger brother, daughter-in-law and many of his friends. His interest in politics, as well as the ability to read in Sanskrit, was the natural result of a constant aspiration for knowledge. According to his own words, he was also deeply alarmed by an explosion of anti-Semitism in fascist Germany and Spain and invested $ 1,000 per year from its annual earnings of $ 15,000 to projects related to the activities of communist groups. After meeting with Kitty Harrison, who became his wife in 1940, Oppenheimer broke up with Jean Tanklock and moved away from the circle of her friends with the left convictions.

In 1939, the United States learned that, as part of the preparation for the Global War, Hitlerovskaya Germany opened the splitting of the atomic nucleus. Oppenheimer and other scientists immediately guessed that German physicists would try to receive a managed chain reaction, which could be the key to creating weapons, much more destructive than any existing at that time. Having enlisted by the support of the Great Scientific Genius, Albert Einstein, concerned scientists in his famous letter warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt about the danger. Signifying the financing of projects aimed at creating an incomplete weapon, the president acted in the situation of strict secrecy. For the irony of fate, together with American scientists in laboratories scattered throughout the country, worked many leading scholars in the world, forced to flee from their homeland. One part of the university groups investigated the possibility of creating a nuclear reactor, others undertake to solve the problem of separating uranium isotopes needed to release energy in the chain reaction. Oppenheimer, who before that was busy with theoretical problems, was offered to engage in the organization of a wide front of work only in early 1942.

The US Army program to create an atomic bomb received the code name "Project Manhattan", it was headed by the 46-year-old Colonel Leslie R. Groves, a professional military. Groves, who characterized scientists who worked on the creation of an atomic bomb, as "expensive collection of nuts,", however, recognized that Opönheimer had the ability to have not been demanded, to manage his colleagues-debaters when the atmosphere was heating. The physicist suggested that all scientists unite in the same laboratory in the quiet provincial town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, in the area he knew well. By March 1943, a closed guesthouse for boys was turned into a strictly protected secret center, whose scientific director became Oppenheimer. Invisible on the free exchange of information between scientists, which is strictly-setting, it was forbidden to leave the center of the Center, Oppenheimer created an atmosphere of confidence and mutual respect, which contributed to amazing success in work. Without sparing herself, he remained the head of all directions of this complex project, although his personal life suffered from this. But for a mixed group of scientists - among which there were more than a dozen of the then or future Nobel laureates and from which a rare person did not possess the pronounced individuality-Popenheimer was an unusually devoted cause by the leader and a subtle diplomat. Most of them would agree that the lion's share of merit in the final success of the project belongs to him. By December 30, 1944, Grovers, who became the general by the General, could say with confidence that at the time spent two billion dollars will be created to the action of the bomb by August 1 of the next year. But when, in May 1945, Germany recognized his defeat, many of the researchers worked in Los Alamos began to think about the use of new weapons. After all, Japan probably would soon capitulate without atomic bombing. Does the United States need to become the world's first country that applied such a terrible device? Harry S. Truman, who became the president after the death of Roosevelt, appointed the Committee to study the possible consequences of the use of an atomic bomb in which Oppenheimer entered. Experts decided to recommend to reset the atomic bomb without warning on a large Japanese military object. Oppenheimer's consent was obtained.

All these alarms would, of course, controversial, if the bomb did not work. The first atomic bomb test was conducted on July 16, 1945 at about 80 kilometers from the aviation base in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The test device, called for its convex form "fat man", attached to the steel tower installed in the desert terrain. Exactly 5.30 am, a detonator with remote control led a bomb into action. A giant violet-green-orange fiery ball shot down with a discontinuous echoker on a plot with a diameter of 1.6 kilometers in the sky. The earth shuddered against the explosion, the tower disappeared. The white pole of smoke rapidly rose to the sky and began to gradually expand, taking at an altitude of about 11 kilometers by the frightening form of the fungus. The first nuclear explosion was struck by scientific and military observers who were near the test site, and spoke them heads. But Oppenheimer remembered the lines from the Indian epic poem "Bhagavadgit": "I will become death, the fighter of the worlds." Until the end of his life, a sense of responsibility for the consequences has always been adopted to satisfying scientific success.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, it was clear over Hiroshima, a cloudless sky. As before, approaching the east of two American aircraft (one of them was called Enola Gay) at an altitude of 10-13 km did not cause anxiety (because every day they were shown in the sky of Hiroshima). One of the aircraft spliced \u200b\u200band dropped something, and then both planes turned and flew away. The scuffed object on the parachute slowly descended and suddenly at an altitude of 600 m above the ground exploded. It was a bomb "Kid".

Three days after the "baby" was blown up in Hiroshima, an accurate copy of the first "fat man" was discarded on the city of Nagasaki. On August 15, Japan, whose determination was finally broken by this new weapon, signed unconditional surrender. However, the voices of skeptics have already been heard, and Openerheimer himself predicted two months after Hiroshima, that "humanity will curse Los Alamos and Hiroshima names."

The whole world was shocked by the explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What is characteristic, the Oppenheimer managed to combine experiences on the test of the bomb on the peaceful citizens and the joy that the weapon was finally verified.

Nevertheless, next year, he accepted the appointment as Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), becoming the most influential adviser to the government and military on nuclear issues. While the West and the Soviet University headed by Stalin was seriously preparing for the Cold War, each of the parties focused on the arms race. Although many of the scientists entering the "Project Manhattan" did not support the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a new weapon, the former employees of Oppenheimer Edward Teller and Ernest Lawrence considered that the US National Security requires the earliest developing a hydrogen bomb. Oppenheimer came to horror. From his point of view, two nuclear powers and so already opposed each other as "two scorpions in a bank, each able to kill the other, but only with a risk for their own life." With the spread of a new weapon in wars, there would no longer be the winners and defeated - only the victims. And the "father of the atomic bomb" made a public statement that he was against the development of a hydrogen bomb. Always felt at the Oppenheimer not in his plate and clearly envied his achievements, Teller began to make efforts to lead a new project, implying that Oppenheimer no longer should take part in the work. He told the investigators of the FBI that his opponent keeps his authority to scientists from working on a hydrogen bomb, and discovered the secret that in the youth of Openheimer suffered from the attacks of severe depression. When President Truman gave consent to finance work on the creation of a hydrogen bomb, Teller could celebrate victory.

In 1954, Oppenheimer's enemies launched a campaign to remove him from power, which they succeeded - after the searches for "black spots" in his personal biography. As a result, a displacement case was organized, in which many influential political and scientific figures were opposed to Oppenheimer. As Albert Einstein, Oppenheimer's problem was spoken about this: "The Oppenheimer's problem was that he loved a woman who did not love him: the US government."

Allowing the talent of Oppenheimer, America defended him to death.

Oppenheimer is known not only as the creator of the American atomic bomb. It owns many works on quantum mechanics, theory of relativity, physics of elementary particles, theoretical astrophysics. In 1927, he developed the theory of interaction of free electrons with atoms. Together with Borne created the theory of the structure of diatomic molecules. In 1931, he and P.Erefest formulated the theorem, the use of which to the nitrogen core showed that the proton-electronic hypothesis of the structure of the nuclei leads to a range of contradictions with known nitrogen properties. Investigated the inner conversion G-lace. In 1937, he developed a cascading theory of cosmic rainfall, in 1938 made the first calculation of the model of a neutron star, in 1939 predicted the existence of "black holes".

Oppenheimer belongs to a number of popular books, including - Science and everyday knowledge (Science and The Common Understanding, 1954), Outdoor Mind (The Open Mind, 1955), some reflections on science and culture (Some Reflections on Science and Culture, 1960) . Oppenheimer died in Princeton on February 18, 1967.

Work on atomic projects in the USSR and the United States began simultaneously. In August 1942, secret "Laboratory No. 2" began working in one of the buildings in the yard of Kazan University. Her leader was appointed Igor Kurchatov.

In Soviet times, it was argued that the USSR decided its atomic task completely independently, and Kurchatov was considered the "father" of the domestic atomic bomb. Although there were rumors about some secrets stolen from Americans. And only in the 90s, after 50 years, one of the main persons then persons - Julius Khariton told about a significant role of intelligence in the acceleration of the sentenced Soviet project. And American scientific and technical results mined Claus Fuchs arrived in the English group.

Information from abroad helped the leadership of the country to take a difficult decision - to begin work on nuclear weapons during the hardest war. Intelligence allowed our physicists to save time, helped to avoid "drying" at the first atomic test that had a huge political significance.

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

After the discovery of the spontaneous division of the uranium-235 nuclei and the definitions of the critical mass in the residency on the initiative of the HTR chief

L. Khomsnikova was sent out the corresponding directive.

In the FSB of Russia (the former KGB of the USSR), 17 volumes of archival business N 13676 are repurchased under the vulture of "Store forever", where they documented who and as attracted US citizens to work on Soviet intelligence. Only a few of the top leadership of the KGB of the USSR had access to the materials of this case, the vulture of secrecy from which only recently was removed. The first information about the work on the creation of an American atomic bomb Soviet intelligence received in the fall of 1941. And already in March 1942, extensive information about the research in the United States and England, research lay on the table I. V. Stalin. According to Y. B. Harriton, in that dramatic period it was more reliable to use for the first of our explosion already tested by the Americans a bomb scheme. "Given the government interests, any other decision was then unacceptable. The merit of Fuchs and other assistants abroad is undoubted. However, we have implemented the American scheme for the first test not so much of the technical, as from political considerations.

The message that the Soviet Union took possession of the secret of nuclear weapons caused the US ruling circles a desire to unleash a preventive war as soon as possible. A plan "Troyan" was developed, which provided for the combat operations on January 1, 1950. At that time, the United States had 840 strategic bombers in the system parts, 1350 - in reserve and over 300 atomic bombs.

In the area of \u200b\u200bSemipalatinsk, a test landfill was built. Exactly at 7.00 am On August 29, 1949, the first Soviet nuclear device under the code name "RDS-1" was undermined at this test site.

The plan "Troyan", according to which atomic bombs should have been discarded on 70 cities, was torn due to the threat of a response strike. The event that happened at the Semipalatinsky landfill was informed about the creation of nuclear weapons in the USSR.

External intelligence not only attracted the attention of the country's leadership to the problem of creating atomic weapons and thereby initiated such work in our country. Thanks to the information of foreign intelligence, according to Academics A. Maleksandrov, Y.Khariton and others, I. Kurchantov did not make big mistakes, we managed to avoid dead-end directions in creating atomic weapons and create an atomic bomb in the USSR in just three years. Whereas the United States spent four years to have spent on its creation five billion dollars.

As Academician Y. Hariton noted in an interview with the newspaper Izvestia dated December 8, 1992, the first Soviet atomic charge was made on an American pattern using the information received from K. Fuks. According to the academician when government awards were awarded to the participants of the Soviet Atomic Project, Stalin, satisfied that the American monopoly in this area does not exist, noticed: "If we were late for one year and a half, then probably would try this charge for yourself ".

The development of Soviet nuclear weapons began with mining at the beginning of the 1930s of radium samples. In 1939, Soviet physicists Julius Khariton and Yakov Zeldovich calculated the chain reaction of dividing the cores of heavy atoms. Next year, the scientists of the Ukrainian Physico-Technical Institute sent applications for the creation of an atomic bomb, as well as methods of Uranium-235 developments. For the first time, researchers suggested using ordinary explosives as a means for inflammation of charge, which would create a critical mass and launch a chain reaction.

However, in the invention, Kharkov physicists had its drawbacks, and therefore their application, having time to visit a wide variety of instances, as a result was rejected. The decisive word was left for the director of the Radio Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Academician Vitaly Chlopin: "... the application does not have a real basis. In addition, it is essentially a lot of fantastic ... Even if it was possible to implement a chain reaction, then the energy that stands out is better to use to actuate the engines, such as airplanes. "

The appeals of scientists on the eve of the Great Patriotic War to the Commissar of Defense of Sergey Tymoshenko were unsuccessful. As a result, the draft invention was buried on the shelf with a vulture "Top Secret."

• Vladimir Semenovich Spinesel
• Wikimedia Commons

In 1990, journalists asked one of the authors of the project of the Bomb of Vladimir Spinel: "If your suggestions in 1939-1940 were appreciated at the government level and would give you support when the USSR could have atomic weapons?"

"I think that with such opportunities that Igor Kurchatov later had, we would get it in 1945," Spinel replied.

However, it was Kurchatov who managed to use successful American schemes for creating a plutonium bomb mined by Soviet intelligence in its development.

Atomic Race

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, nuclear research was temporarily stopped. The main scientific institutions of the two capitals were evacuated to remote regions.

The head of the strategic intelligence of Lawrence Beria was aware of the developments of Western physicists in the field of nuclear weapons. For the first time on the possibility of creating a super-bearing, the Soviet leadership learned from the "father" of the American atomic bomb of Robert Oppenheimer, who visited the Soviet Union in September 1939. In the early 1940s and politicians, and scientists have realized the reality of obtaining a nuclear bomb, as well as the fact that its appearance in the opponent's arsenal will jeopardize the safety of other powers.

In 1941, the Soviet government received the first intelligence officers from the United States and Great Britain, where active work began on the creation of super-hand. The main informant was the Soviet "nuclear spy" Klaus Fuchs - a physicist from Germany, participating in United Nuclear Programs of the United States and Great Britain.

• Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences Physicist Peter Kapitsa
• RIA News
• V. Soskov

Academician Peter Kapitsa, speaking on October 12, 1941 on the anti-fascist rally of scientists, said: "One of the important means of modern war are explosives. Science Indicates the fundamental ability to increase the blasting force 1.5-2 times ... Theoretical calculations show that if a modern powerful bomb can, for example, destroy the whole quarter, then an atomic bomb of even a small size, if it is feasible, could be destroyed with ease Major capital city with several million population. My personal opinion is that the technical difficulties facing the use of intra-large energy are still very great. While this thing is still dubious, but it is very likely that there are great opportunities here. "

In September 1942, the Soviet government adopted a resolution "On the organization of work on uranium". In the spring of next year, Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Science was created for the production of the first Soviet bomb. Finally, on February 11, 1943, Stalin signed the decision of the GKO on the program of work on the creation of an atomic bomb. At first, to lead an important task was instructed by the Deputy Chairman of the GKO Vyacheslav Molotov. It was he who was to find a scientific leader of a new laboratory.

Molotov himself in the record of July 9, 1971, so recalls his decision: "We have been working on this topic from 1943. I was entrusted for them to answer, find such a person who could make the creation of an atomic bomb. Chekists gave me a list of reliable physicists, on which it was possible to rely, and I chose. Called Kapitsa to himself, academician. He said that we were not ready for this and the atomic bomb - the weapon is not this war, the case of the future. Ioffe was asked - he, too, somehow it was unclear to this. In short, I had the youngest and no one who had not yet known Kurchatov, he was not given the go. I called him, talked, he made a good impression on me. But he said he had a lot of ambiguities. Then I decided to give him the materials of our intelligence - the scouts made a very important thing. Curches sitting in the Kremlin for several days, I have over these materials. "

The next couple of weeks of the Kurchatov thoroughly studied the data acquired and amounted to an expert opinion: "Materials are huge, invaluable importance for our state and science ... The set of information indicates the technical possibility of solving the entire uranium problem in a significantly shorter period than our scientists think not familiar with the work on this issue abroad. "

In mid-March, Igor Kurchatov took the post of scientific leader of Laboratory No. 2. In April 1946, for the needs of this laboratory, it was decided to create the KB-11 design bureau. The super-secret object was located on the territory of the former Sarov monastery a few dozen kilometers from Arzamas.

• Igor Kurchatov (right) with a group of employees of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology
• RIA News

CB-11 specialists had to create an atomic bomb that uses plutonium as a working substance. At the same time, in the process of creating the first in the USSR of nuclear weapons, domestic scientists relied on the schemes of the US plutonium bomb, which has been successful testing in 1945. However, since the production of Plutonium in the Soviet Union has not yet been engaged, physics at the initial stage used uranium mined in Czechoslovak mines, as well as in the territories of East Germany, Kazakhstan and Kolyma.

The first Soviet atomic bomb was called RDS-1 ("Special Jet Engine"). To upload a sufficient amount of uranium and launch a chain response to a group of specialists under the leadership of Kurchatov on June 10, 1948. The next step was to use plutonium.

"This is atomic zipper"

In the plutonium "fat man," on the Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, American scientists laid 10 kilograms of radioactive metal. Such a number of substance of the USSR managed to accumulate by June 1949. The head of the Kurchatov experiment told the Curator of the Atomic Project of Lavrentia Beria about the readiness to experience RDS-1 on August 29.

A part of the Kazakhstan steppe of about 20 kilometers was chosen as a testing ground for testing. In its central part, experts built a metal tower with a height of almost 40 meters. It was on it that the RDS-1 was installed, the mass of which was 4.7 tons.

The Soviet physicist Igor Golovin describes the situation that reigned at the landfill a few minutes before the start of the test: "Everything is fine. And suddenly, with general silence, Ten minutes before the "hour", Beria's voice is heard: "And you, Igor Vasilyevich, will not work!" - "What are you, Lavrenty Pavlovich! Be sure to get! " - exclaims Kurchatov and continues to observe, only the neck of His scrambled and the face has become gloomy-focused. "

A large scientist in the field of atomic right to Abram Ioyrous State Kurchatov seems to be similar to religious experience: "Kurchatov rushed out of the caasemate, ran into the earthen shaft and with the cry" she! " Widely waved his hands, repeating: "She, she!" - And enlightenment differed in his face. The explosion pillar flowed and leaving the stratosphere. A shock wave is approximated to the command item, clearly visible on the grass. Kurchatov rushed towards her. Fleers rushed behind him, grabbed him by the hand, forcibly in the caasemate and closed the door. " The author of the biography of Kurchatov Peter Astashenkov empowers his hero with the following words: "This is atomic zipper. Now she is in our hands ... "

Immediately after the explosion, the metal tower collapsed to the base, and only a funnel remained in her place. The powerful shock wave dropped the highway bridges for a couple of dozen meters, and the cars were located nearby on the spaces almost 70 meters from the explosion site.

• Nuclear Mushroom Ground Explosion RDS-1 August 29, 1949
• Archive RFA-VNIIEF

Once after the next test, Kurchatov asked: "Doesn't the moral side of this invention be disturbed?"

"You asked a lawsager question," he answered. "But it seems to me that he is incorrectly addressed." It is not better to add to us, but those who have unleashed these forces ... It is not a physics terrible, but an adventuristic game, not science, but the use of it with a scoundrel ... When science performs a jerk and opens the opportunity for actions affecting millions of people, it comes Rethink the norms of morality to put these actions under control. But nothing like it happened. Rather, on the contrary. You are thinking about - Churchill's speech in Fulton, military bases, bombers along our borders. The intentions are extremely clear. Science turned into a blackmail tool and the main decisive policy factor. Do you think Moral stops them? And if the situation is the case, but it is exactly the way you have to talk to them in their language. Yes, I know: weapons that we created is a tool of violence, but we forced us to create in order to avoid more disgusting violence! " - Describes the response of a scientist in the book of Abraha Ioyry and the athletic physicist Igor Morokhova "A-Bomb".

A total of five Bombs RDS-1 were made. All of them were stored in the closed city of Arzamas-16. Now see the layout of the bomb in the Museum of Nuclear Weapons in Sarov (former Arzamas-16).

Third Reich Bulavina Victoria Viktorovna

Who invented a nuclear bomb?

Who invented a nuclear bomb?

The Nazi Party has always recognized the great importance of technology and invests huge funds in the development of rockets, airplanes and tanks. But the most outstanding and dangerous discovery was made in the field of nuclear physics. Germany was in the 1930s, perhaps the leader in nuclear physics. However, with the arrival of the Nazis, many German physicists who were Jews left the third Reich. Some of them emigrated to the United States, bringing with them to lead: Germany may work on creating an atomic bomb. These wake up the Pentagon to take measures to develop their own atomic program, which was called "Manhattan Project" ...

Interesting, but more than a dubious version of the "secret weapon of the Third Reich" suggested Hans Ulrich von Kranz. In his book, the "secret weapon of the Third Reich" is put forward by the version that the atomic bomb was created in Germany and that the United States only simulated the results of the "Manhattan project". But tell about it in more detail.

Otto Gan, the famous German physicist and Radiochemistry, together with another major scientist Fritus Strausman, opened in 1938 the division of the uranium nucleus, actually giving it the start of the work on the creation of nuclear weapons. In 1938, nuclear developments were not classified, but practically in any country, except in Germany, did not pay due attention. They did not see much sense. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain argued: "This distracted matter has nothing to do with state needs." The state of nuclear research in the United States of America, Professor Gan estimated this: "If we talk about the country in which the nucleus division processes are given the least attention, then it is necessary to immediately call the United States. Of course, now I do not consider Brazil or Vatican. However, among developed countries, even Italy and Communist Russia is much ahead of the United States. " He also noted that there are little attention to the problems of theoretical physics on the other side of the ocean, priority is given to applied developments that can give immediate profits. The ghana verdict was unequivocal: "I can confidently assert that over the next decade, the North American will not be able to do anything substantial for the development of atomic physics." This statement and served as the basis for building a hypothesis of the trash. Consider its version.

At the same time, Alcos Group was created, whose activities were reduced to the "head hunt" and the search for the secrets of German nuclear research. There is a lawsager question: what are the Americans to seek other secrets if their own project is in full swing? Why did they count on other people's research?

In the spring of 1945, thanks to the activities of Alcos, many scientists who took part in German nuclear studies were in the hands of Americans. Geisenberg, and Gan, and Ozenberg, and Dibner, and many other outstanding German physicists have them to Mai. But the Alksos group continued to be active in already defeated Germany - until the very end of May. And only when all major scientists were sent to America, Alcos ceased operations. And at the end of June, Americans are tested atomic bombs, as stated, for the first time in the world. And in early August, two bombs are discarded on Japanese cities. Hans Ulrich von Kranz drew attention to these coincidences.

Doubts from the researcher also causes the fact that only a month has passed between the tests and combat use of the new super reservation, because the manufacture of a nuclear bomb is impossible in such a short time! After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the following bombs in the United States appeared in service only in 1947, which was preceded by additional tests in El Paso in 1946. This suggests that we are dealing with carefully hidden truth, as it turns out that in 1945 Americans dump three bombs - and everything is successful. The following tests are the same bombs - pass a year and a half later, and not too successfully (three bombs of four were exploded. Serial production began after another six months, and it is not known how long the atomic bombs appearing on American army warehouses corresponded to their terrible appointment. This is a researcher for the idea that "the first three atomic bombs are the same, forty-fifth year - were built by the Americans not independently, but were obtained from someone. If talking directly from the Germans. Indirectly such a hypothesis confirms the reaction of German scientists on the bombing of the Japanese cities, which we know thanks to the book of David Irving. " According to the researcher, the atomic draft of the Third Reich controlled Anenchic, which was in the personal submission of the leader of the SS Henry Himmler. According to Hans Ulrich the background of the crane, "nuclear charge is the best tool for post-war genocide, and Hitler, and Himmler believed. According to the researcher, on March 3, 1944, the atomic bomb (the object "Loki") was delivered to the test site - in the marsh forests of Belarus. Tests were successful and caused unprecedented enthusiasm in the leadership of the Third Reich. German propaganda and previously mentioned the "miracle weapons" of a giant destructive force, which will soon receive the Wehrmacht, now these motifs sounded even louder. Usually they are considered bluff, but can we definitely make such a conclusion? As a rule, Nazi propaganda was not bluffing, it only embellished reality. It was not yet possible to catch it in a major lie on "Miracle weapons". Recall the propaganda promised reactive fighters - the fastest in the world. And at the end of 1944, hundreds of "Messerschmittov-262" patrolled the airspace Reich. Propaganda promised rocket rain enemies, and from the autumn of the same year, dozens of winged raquets fau fell daily into English cities. So why start a bluff the promised super dedicating weapon?

Since the spring of 1944, feverish facilities have begun to serial production of nuclear ammunition. But why did these bombs apply? The background of the crane gives such an answer - there was no carrier, and when the "Junkers-390" transport aircraft appeared, the Reich was waiting for a betrayal, besides, these bombs could no longer solve the outcome of the war ...

How believable this version? Did the Germans really developed an atomic bomb? It is difficult to say, but it is not necessary to exclude such an opportunity, because, as we know, it is German specialists in the early 1940s by leaders in atomic studies.

Despite the fact that many historians are studying the secrets of the third Reich, because many secret documents became available, it seems that today archives with materials about the military developments of Germany reliably store many mysteries.