Fusion: History

1
Fusion History
By Mark A. Prelas University of Missouri
2
Introduction

• History of the Thermonuclear Weapons Program A
  Different Viewpoint
• Brief History of Other Nuclear Powers
• Dealing with Proliferation in the Context of
  History

3
Locations of Obninsk and Arzamas-16

• Obninsk is located in the Kaluga region, 107 km
  to the South-West of Moscow on the bank of the
  Protva-river of the Oka tributary.
• Arzamas-16 The nuclear center was founded in the
  Sarov area, in a former factory settlement.

4
Location of Chelyabisnk-70

• Chelyabinsk-70 is located between the cities
  Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk

5
Location of Almaty and Semipalatynsk-21

• Almaty is located on the ancient silk road.
• Semipalatynsk-21 is located about 150 km east of
  Semi.

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Obninsk

• Obnisnk is the home of the Institute of Physics
  and Power Engineering (IPPE).
• IPPEs mission was to take nuclear reactors from
  the test phase to the production phase.
• Achievements Channel type nuclear reactors,
  TOPAZ, breeder reactors.

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Group Picture
8
Arzamas-16

• The site, designated as N 550 in 1939, was a
  defense facility. When Russia entered World War
  II, the facility started production of artillery
  shells for the "Katyusha" rocket launchers.
• A decision was made by the State Defense
  Committee in 1943 to establish an atomic program.
  As a result, Sarov was designated as the
  Instrumentation Laboratory N 2 of the Soviet
  Academy of Sciences.
• A decision was made on April 9, 1946 to focus
  on nuclear Weapons RD. A decree was issued by
  the Government on July 4, 1946 to establish the
  Design Bureau 11 at Sarov. Today the site is know
  as the Institute for Experimental Physics (IEP)
  or Arzamas-16.

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Arzamas-16
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Greeting at Arzamas-16
11
Academician Yuly Khariton
Khariton
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(No Transcript)
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Chelyabinsk-70
Institute for Technical Physics (IEP)
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Kurchatov Statue
Kurchatov
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Lake Chelyabinsk
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Shrine of the Tiger at Chelyabinsk-70
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Almaty, Kazakhstan
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Director General Batyrbekov
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10 MW Reactor at the General Physics Institute
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Semipalatynsk-21
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Hydrogen Bomb? (Russians claim to be first)

• Soviet Test No. 4 or "Joe-4" The Sloika ("Layer
  Cake") Design First tested on August 12, 1953 at
  the Semipalatynsk test range had a 400 kt yield
  (15-20 of energy fusion, and 80-85 directly or
  indirectly fission)

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"Joe-4" Semipalatynsk-21, Aug. 12, 1953
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Crater Lake from "Joe-4"
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Russian Nuclear Weapons Program

• Early work on fission in the Soviet Union was
  performed by Yakov Zel'dovich and Yuli Khariton
  who published a series of papers in 1939-41 that
  laid the groundwork for later Soviet atomic
  Weapons development.
• In 1943 during World War II, physicist Igor
  Vasilievich Kurchatov personally convinced Stalin
  to begin the Soviet weapons program. Under
  Kurchatov, the program began modestly by sifting
  through reports collected by Soviet intelligence
  about the Manhattan Project in the U.S.
• Immediately after the surrender of Japan,
  Lavrenti Beria was appointed to head the entire
  project, with Kurchatov remaining as scientific
  director. Using the detailed data available on
  the American program, and the detailed design
  description of the Fat Man bomb provided by Fuchs
  in June 1945, the Soviet program achieved its
  first test by 1949.

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• The first Soviet nuclear reactor went critical on
  Dec. 25, 1946, at 6 p.m. at the Kurchatov
  Institute in Moscow. The graphite moderated F-1
  (for "Physics-1") reactor was probably based on
  the design of the Hanford 305 reactor and
  originally operated at a power level of 10 watts.
  The F1 concept was scaled up and larger graphite
  moderated plutonium production reactors were
  built and provided the fissile material for the
  first Soviet atomic bombs.
• The first Soviet nuclear test, "First Lightning",
  detonated a plutonium bomb, the RDS-1 at 7 am
  Aug. 29, 1949. Despite the reservations of the
  program scientists, Beria insisted that this
  device be an exact copy of the U.S. Fat Man.

26
Differences that Academician Khariton has with
Historians

• Historians claim that the data obtained through
  intelligence accelerated the Russian Program.

• Khariton claimed that most of data obtained by
  intelligence was unreliable and took more time to
  verify than it was worth. Thus he did not rely on
  western data.

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History of Thermonuclear Bomb

• US Program
• 9/41 Fermi discusses idea of using atomic bomb to
  drive a fusion bomb with Teller.
• 7/42 Teller proposes a deuterium superbomb
• 5/46 Klaus Fuchs and John von Neumann propose a
  two core bomb. A fission core igniting a D-T
  fusion core by radiation. Write patent.
• 8/46 Teller proposes the Alarm Clock design-
  Spherical shells of fission and D-T fusion fuels
  like layers of onion.
• 9/47 Teller proposes that LiD be used as fusion
  fuel.

• USSR Program
• 9/47 Fuchs and KGB agent Feklisov first meet and
  talk about superbomb.

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• 12/47 Zeldovich develops theory for thermonuclear
  device with liquid D and LiD.
• 3/48 Fuchs gives Feklisov the Fuchs-von Neumann
  patent.
• 10/48 Sakharov proposes Sloika- similar to
  Tellers Alarm Clock.
• 1/49 Sakharov has preliminary design of a two
  stage thermonuclear device.
• 3/49 Ginzburg proposes use of 6LiD in Sloika
  design.

• 1/51 Teller and Ulam propose two stage system.
  Fission core separated from fusion core. Uses
  lensing.
• 6/51 Teller and De Hoffmann suggest using 6LiD as
  fusion fuel.

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• 8/53 Sloika using 6LiD works. Actual yield is
  within 30 of theory.
• 1/54 Zeldovich and Sakharov develop 2-stage
  design. Uses gases from atomic explosion to
  compress fusion core.
• 4/54 Sakharov proposes compression of fusion core
  by radiation energy from primary core.
• 11/55 RDS-37 uses two stage design with 6LiD.
  Device was dropped from an airplane.

• 11/52 Ivy Mike uses cryogenic D-T and
  Teller-Ulam design.
• 3/54 Bravo uses LiD with 40 6Li and
  Teller-Ulam design.
• 5/56 Cherokee uses 6LiD and Teller-Ulamdesign.
  Device was dropped from an airplane.

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Achievements

• US
• 1952 First to demonstrate thermonuclear
  detonation. Theory was off by more than a factor
  of 2.
• 1954 used Teller-Ulam design with LiD. Theory was
  off by more than a factor of 2.

• USSR
• 1953 First to use 6LiD. Theory was off by 30
• 1955 First to air drop. Theory was within 10.

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Test dates and achievements
Ivy Mike

• Used Teller-Ulam principle of separate staging.
  Used fission bomb as the primary stage, and
  liquid deuterium fusion fuel stored in a
  cylindrical Dewar (thermos) flask as secondary
  stage (10.4 megaton--8 fission, 2.4 fusion).
• Layer Cake design using lithium deuteride (320 kt
  fission, 80 kt fusion).
• First "dry" or solid fuel (lithium deuteride
  fueled) H-Bomb tested by the U.S., and the first
  solid fuel 2-stage device ever tested (10 Mt
  fission, 5 Mt fusion).
• A two-stage radiation implosion Sakharov's
  radiation implosion and Teller-Ulam two stage
  design. This was also the world's first
  air-dropped fusion bomb test. (Unanticipated
  collateral damage, killing three people from a
  building collapse)

• US Ivy Mike, Nov. 1, 1952, 10.4 Mt
• Soviet Joe 4, August 12, 1953, 0.4 Mt
• US Castle Bravo, March 1, 1954, 15 Mt
• Soviet RDS-37, Nov. 22, 1955, 1.6 Mt

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British Nuclear Weapons Program

• On January 8, 1947 a committee of six Ministers
  (headed by P.M. Attlee) decided to proceed with
  the development of atomic weapons.
• William G. Penney led effort. He was part of a
  British team sent to Los Alamos during the war to
  assist in the Manhattan project.
• First reactor went critical at Windscale (now
  Sellafield) in October 1950.
• First atomic bomb test, Hurricane, October 3,
  1952
• First hydrogen bomb test, Grapple 1 or Short
  Granite, May 15, 1957.

Penney
Hurricane
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French Nuclear Weapons Program

• The French had an active group of nuclear
  physicists prior to World War II.
• After WWII, France had to reestablish its nuclear
  expertise without US or British help.
• On Feb 13 1960, the French test their first
  fission bomb at Reganne,Algeria.
• On Aug 24 1968, the French test their first
  thermonuclear bomb at Fangataufa

Moruroa II
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Chinas Nuclear Weapons Program

• Chinas first atomic bomb test 596, October 16,
  1964 (U-235 bomb) at Lop Nur Test Ground.
• Chinas first hydrogen bomb Test No. 6, June
  17, 1967 at Lop Nur Test Ground.

Lop Nur Test Ground
Test No. 6
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South Africa Nuclear Weapons Program

• Developed a U-235 enrichment technology called
  UCOR during the 1960s and 70s. Research on
  weapons started in 1971. (The South Africans
  decided to use the gun design.)
• The Y Plant" was built at Valindaba, next to the
  Pelindaba Research Center 25 km west of Pretoria.
  It is capable of enriching 60 kg of 90 U-235 a
  year.
• In 1991 South Africa signed the Non Proliferation
  Treaty.
• In a March 24, 1993 speech, Pres. De Klerk
  announced that South Africa had produced nuclear
  weapons and that they had destroyed their arsenal
  before July 10, 1991, when South Africa joined
  the NPT.

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Israels Nuclear Weapons Program

• Israel has never admitted to having a nuclear
  weapons program.
• Israels Dimona facility is believed to be the
  center of their nuclear weapons activity.
• Ernst David Bergmann headed the Weizmann
  Institute of Sciences chemistry program in 1949
  with nuclear focus.
• In the 1950s and 60s Israel and France
  cooperated in their nuclear science programs.
• Israels program took shape Oct. 1956 during the
  Suez Canal Crisis. Due to close collaboration
  between Israel and France, France agreed to build
  an EL-3 type reactor, along with plutonium
  separation technology at the Dimona Facility.
  Ground was broken in 1958.
• Norway sold Israel 20 tons of heavy water in
  1959. In 1961 the heavy water was loaded in the
  Dimona reactor.
• The Dimona reactor went critical in 1962.
• The French completed the plutonium facility in
  1964.
• According to the Israeli paper Ha'aretz on
  SundayApril 20, 1997. Israel assisted South
  Africa in developing nuclear weapons in the early
  1980s.

Dimona facility
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Indias Nuclear Weapons Program

• Due to border tensions with China, India begins
  Nuclear Weapons program.
• A plutonium separation facility was built at
  Trombay near Bombay in the 1950s. It began
  operation in 1964.
• Plutonium probably came from a Canadian Reactor
  at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) the
  40 MW CIR (Canadian-Indian Reactor) heavy water
  research reactor (also called Cirus).
• The first atomic bomb was the Smiling Buddha
  detonated on May 18, 1974 at Pokhran, Rajasthan
  Desert, India.
• India has several CANDU reactors in addition to
  the Cirus.

Test crater
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Pakistan Nuclear Weapons Program

• Due to worries about Indias nuclear program,
  Pakistan began the Engineering Research
  Laboratories (ERL) in 1976.
• The Pakistani program is based on a home made
  centrifuge uranium enrichment plant, using
  technology misappropriated from the European
  uranium centrifuge consortium URENCO (Britain,
  Germany, and the Netherlands are the
  participants).
• Dr. Abdul Qader Khan, who worked for
  Ultra-Centrifuge Nederland (UCN) the Dutch
  partner of URENCO, led the Pakistan program.
• In 1992 Foreign Minister Shahryrar stated that
  Pakistan had components to assemble nuclear
  weapons.
• Pakistan has a Chinese built power reactor. It
  has a self engineered 50 MWe heavy water
  moderated reactor now under construction.

Khan
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Declared Nuclear Countries

• USA
• Russia
• Britain
• France
• China
• India
• Pakistan

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Countries that possess nuclear technology but
have signed NPT

• Advanced Abilities
• Germany
• Japan
• Ukraine
• Canada
• Sweden

• Moderate Abilities
• Taiwan
• Netherlands
• Switzerland
• South Korea
• Australia
• Kazakhstan
• Argentina
• Brazil
• Belarus
• Algeria

Ranked in approximate order of level of technology
41
Countries working on Nuclear Weapons

• North Korea
• Iran
• Iraq
• Libya (NPT signatory Qaddafi declared intention
  to develop nuclear weapons)

42
Conclusions

• Many Countries have nuclear weapons
• Many Countries have the technology to develop
  weapons quickly
• Many Countries desire nuclear weapons
• There is a clear need for world wide arms control
  and disarmament.