Three academicians and four corresponding members, one Hero of Labor and two Heroes of Russia, doctors of sciences and candidates – this is the most important cross section, for a general understanding, of the presentation of participants and speakers at the V historical conference ” Atomic Project and Domestic Science”.
Valentin Kostyukov and Vyacheslav Solovyov, director and scientific director of RFNC-VNIIEF, greeting their colleagues and partners, agreed on the main thing: the time and events that we are experiencing now largely correspond to the situation during the implementation of the Atomic Project of the USSR. And this message – understanding the present in the mirror of the past and predicting the future – was the leitmotiv of all the speakers.
“Ensuring nuclear deterrence, reliability and security of the nuclear arsenal has been and remains the main goal of our team,” said Valentin Kostyukov. “And to do this we need to support fundamental science, carry out applied research and take care of the training and professional development of highly qualified scientific personnel.
The director of RFNC-VNIIEF especially highlighted the role that the divisions of the nuclear center attribute to working with talented young people. Precisely for this purpose, a branch of MSU-Sarov was created three years ago, and now the National Center for Physics and Mathematics is being formed around this educational core. Its scientific supervisor, the former president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, academician Alexander Sergeev, works in constant contact with nuclear scientists and does everything possible to get the best master’s and postgraduate students to join his team and find a worthy use of the knowledge acquired. here.
Academician Sergeev himself did not participate in the conference, but his colleague, the scientific director of VNIIEF, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Vyacheslav Solovyov, in response to my question confirmed: more than 30 people were hired from the first class of MSU-Sarov . At the nuclear center, some of them are simultaneously studying in graduate school, preparing to defend their first scientific works.
And the choice of topics is wide, as is the theme of the work of the entire nuclear center. According to its director, along with the development of nuclear weapons technologies, the development and production of civil and dual-use products, from the synthesis of transuranic elements, laser systems, supercomputers and computational software systems to microelectronics and medical devices, are It is becoming an urgent task for the team.
For example, Tianox is a compact and very popular device for generating nitrogen monoxide (NO) for therapeutic purposes, which was created, certified and put into mass production at its Sarov facility. On the eve of 2023, as Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports, 10 of these devices were donated to the Central Military Clinical Hospital named after AA Vishnevsky Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, where they provide assistance, including to participants from the Northern Military District .
Andrey Grebennikov, candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, told about another popular area of work at the nuclear center. He offered a retrospective of how Sarov created his own computing base and his own supercomputers. In Soviet times and throughout the 90s, we were far behind. But timely decisions at the ministerial level plus the determined work of the team ensured the desired result.
In the early 2000s, that is, in about 15 years, the computing power in the mathematics department of the RFNC-VNIIEF increased, according to Grebennikov, 10 thousand times. Another five or seven years later they began to produce supercomputers for Russian clients – large scientific companies and design bureaus.
“And now a unique technology has been implemented to remotely provide supercomputer computing resources for companies in the defense industry, industries and scientific organizations,” said Andrey Grebennikov.
Honorary Scientific Director of RFNC-VNIIEF, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Radiy Ilkaev, speaking about the lessons of the USSR Atomic Project in relation to our days, highlighted the following. First of all, this is a lesson in the rational and purposeful organization of all work on the atomic problem. Secondly, an example of how to attract the intellectual power of the country to fulfill a state task. And also how one should react to an advance in the scientific field when it has a colossal defensive significance.
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“There is no doubt that the names of Kurchatov and Khariton are on a par with the names of Tchaikovsky, Tsiolkovsky and Tolstoy, which belong to Russia, the nation that produces geniuses.”
Arnold Kramish, Thomas Reed, veterans of the American atomic project, 1996.
