SAROV (Nizhny Novgorod region). 8 SepThe new project on high energy density physics at the Sarov Nuclear Center is important for Russia's defense capability, it is impressive, said President Vladimir Putin.
“I understand how important this is for the economy, for the national economy, and for increasing the country’s defense capability; I am familiar with some achievements in this area. And I wish further success,” Putin said at a meeting with young scientists of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center – All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics in Sarov.
The President emphasized that the new project on high energy density physics is impressive, “it’s just some kind of fantasy.”
The head of the research department of the Institute of Laser Physics Research told the head of state about this project (ILFI) RFNC-VNIIEF Boris Zimalin.
“Currently, in our nuclear center, work is underway on a project that will allow Russia to take a leading position in the field of high energy density physics and laser thermonuclear fusion. This, in fact, will allow us to become real competitors to the West,” Zimalin emphasized.
«»Last year we successfully completed the first stage of creating a multichannel laser installation with a megajoule energy level. And now, together with scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences, research has begun at this installation to study the behavior of matter in extreme states, the generation of strong shock waves, fast electrons, as well as hard X-rays,» he added.
The Sarov installation UFL-2M, often figuratively called the “Tsar laser,” is important for studying the extreme properties of matter, including from the point of view of studying the possibility of creating new energy sources, as well as understanding the processes occurring in stars. At the same time, as follows from open sources of information, UFL-2M is indispensable for modeling and designing new types of Russian nuclear weapons.
Such installations are being built by all the leading nuclear powers — after the ban on nuclear weapons tests, they study the processes occurring at the moment of the explosion, Academician Sergei Garanin, Deputy Director for Laser Systems at VNIIEF, told Science and Life magazine back in the early 2000s.
To study on supercomputers what happens during explosions of thermonuclear charges, data is needed on the state of matter at ultra-high temperatures and pressures characteristic of the conditions of the explosion. Such information can be obtained precisely by laser compression of targets with the substance under study. Since very few countries can create such laser systems, they can be considered one of the indicators of a state’s technological development. As previously reported, the UFL-2M installation will have 192 laser channels in total, that is, it will be able to create 192 laser beams, which is necessary for uniform irradiation of the target from all sides.
The Sarov laser synthesis facility will become a record holder among the laser systems introduced and planned for construction. It was reported that one and a half times more pulsed energy would be supplied to the thermonuclear target than at the American NIF laser installation used in the program to maintain the combat readiness of American nuclear arsenals.
RFNC-VNIIEF (part of the Rosatom nuclear weapons complex) was founded in 1946 to implement the Soviet nuclear project. The first domestic atomic and hydrogen bombs were developed here. Currently, VNIIEF is the largest scientific and technical center in Russia, which successfully solves defense, scientific and national economic problems. The main task of VNIIEF was and remains work in the field of nuclear weapons in Russia.