MOSCOW, 12 Apr. The Research Center «Kurchatov Institute» is 80 years old. About its history and current achievements — in the article .
From laboratory to megascience
On April 12, 1943, the secret Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences began work on the outskirts of Moscow. At that moment there were only ten physicists, headed by Igor Kurchatov. Their main task, set by the country's leadership, was the creation of nuclear weapons. This is how the Soviet atomic project began.
In December 1946, the first uranium-graphite research reactor F-1 in Eurasia was launched in the laboratory under the leadership of Kurchatov — it was possible to carry out a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
In 1956, Laboratory No. 2 became the Institute of Atomic Energy of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building of the USSR. In 1960, he was named after Kurchatov, and in 1991 the organization received the status of the Russian Scientific Center (RNC).
In 1949, the Kurchatovites developed the Soviet atomic bomb, and in 1953, the world's first thermonuclear bomb. In 1954, the world's first nuclear power plant was built, and in 1958, a nuclear reactor for submarines and icebreakers.
Scientists of the institute justified the possibility of using controlled thermonuclear fusion for industrial purposes and proposed a technological solution for this — in 1958 they created an experimental thermonuclear installation with magnetic plasma confinement, the so-called tokamak.
This served as the basis for a whole trend in world science. The results obtained at the Kurchatov Institute are now used in the construction of the international experimental thermonuclear reactor ITER in France — this is one of the most ambitious energy projects of our time.
The Kurchatov Institute is actively involved in it, as well as in a number of other mega-science projects. Among them: the European X-ray free electron laser XFEL, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Center for Synchrotron Radiation ESRF, the European Center for Research on Ions and Antiprotons FAIR.
Own fusion
In May 2021, a modernized T-15MD thermonuclear research reactor was launched in Kurchatovsky. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin was also present.
On the day of the 80th anniversary of the institute, its president Mikhail Kovalchuk, speaking to reporters, said: “A stable plasma has been obtained, millions of degrees. It (tokamak. — Ed.) started up from the first moment. is gaining power and reaching global parameters.
T-15MD is the first tokamak built in the country in 20 years. In terms of technical parameters, it has no analogues in the world. Feature — in a combination of high power with compactness. The facility is part of the international thermonuclear project ITER. A thermonuclear source of neutrons should be created on it.
Progress and traditions
The Kurchatov Institute not only continues traditional fundamental research in the field of nuclear physics, but also develops many new scientific areas. A unique complex of nano-, bio-, info-, cognitive and socio-humanitarian (NBICS) sciences has developed here.
The most modern devices and mega-installations, such as neutron reactors, accelerators, synchrotron sources, high-power lasers, supercomputers, allow scientists from various fields to work together to create nature-like energy systems, neuromorphic artificial intelligence systems, cyber-physical additive manufacturing complexes, medical systems, including based on regenerative technologies, methods of nuclear medicine and technologies for the correction of psychophysiology, anthropomorphic biorobotics.
The range of scientific research is constantly expanding, but for 80 years the basic principles on which the success of scientists are based have not changed: fundamental scientific knowledge, interdisciplinary approach and focus on bottom line.