Nuclear top Bashny.Net

not to say that a lot of letters and 11 images, the source will be listed at the end, we go.

Have you ever wondered why the number of countries possessing nuclear weapons is so limited? Or why some of the countries possessing these weapons can not arbitrarily increase its nuclear power, despite all their desire?
Yes of course! The thing is most of these nuclear technologies. And most important of them is this uncomplicated device.

Here is a nondescript gray cylinder and is a key component of the Russian nuclear industry.
Looks, of course, not too presentable, but its purpose is to understand and look at the specifications as you begin to realize why the secret of his creation and protects the structure of the state as the apple of his eye.

Oh, I forgot to introduce: in front of you, the gas centrifuge for uranium isotope separation, BT-3F (n-th generation). The operating principle of the elementary like milk separator, heavy by centrifugal force, is separated from the lung. So what is the significance and uniqueness?





To begin to answer another question - and in general, what separates the uranium?
Natural uranium, which is about right in the land lies, is a cocktail of two isotopes: uranium-238 and uranium-235 (and 0, 0054% U-234).
Uranium-238 is a heavy, gray metal. From it you can make an artillery shell, well ... or keychain. But what can be done from uranium-235? Well in the first atomic bomb, in the second fuel for nuclear power plants. And here we come to the key question - how to separate the two, almost identical atoms from each other? Well, no, really, HOW ?!
By the way: The radius of the nucleus of an atom of uranium -1.5 10-8 cm.
For what would be the uranium atoms could drive into the production chain, its (uranium) should be turned into a gaseous state. Boil sense is not enough to connect the uranium fluoride and get uranium hexafluoride HFC. The technology of its receipt is not very complicated and costly, and because HFCs get right where the uranium and extract. UF6 is the only highly volatile compound of uranium (when heated to 53 ° C hexafluoride (pictured) goes directly from a solid to a gaseous state). It was then pumped into a special tank and is sent to the enrichment.



A bit of history
At the beginning of the nuclear arms race, the greatest scientific minds, both the USSR and the United States, the idea was assimilated diffusion separation - skip uranium through a sieve. Little-235 isotope slip, and "thick" 238th stuck. And to make a sieve with nano-holes of Soviet industry in 1946 was not the most difficult task.

The report Kikoin Kikoin on Scientific and Technical Council under the Council of People's Commissars (shown in the collection of declassified materials on the Soviet atomic project (Ed. Ryabev)): "At the present time, we have learned to do a grid with holes about 5/1, 000 mm, ie. e. 50 times the mean free path of molecules at atmospheric pressure. Therefore, the gas pressure at which the isotope separation would occur such meshes must be smaller than 1/50 of atmospheric pressure. Practically we expect to operate at a pressure of about 0, 01 atmosphere, i.e. under good vacuum. Calculation shows that for obtaining a product enriched in the concentration of 90% in the light isotope (such a concentration is sufficient to produce an explosive) to join in a cascade of about 2000 degrees. The designed and partially machine made us expect to get 75-100 grams of uranium-235 per day. The installation will consist of approximately 80-100 "pillars", each of which is installed 20-25 degrees ».
Below is a document - a report on the preparation of Beria to Stalin atoinogo first explosion. Below is given a small note on the turned nuclear materials by early summer 1949 year.



And now imagine yourself - 2000 burly facilities for some 100 grams! But what to do something, because the bombs are needed. And they build factories and not just a factory, and the whole city. And the right only of the city, the electricity diffusion plants require so much that had to be built next to the individual power plant.

In the photo: the world's first gas-diffusion enrichment plant K-25 in Oak Ridge (USA). Construction cost $ 500 million. The length of the U-shaped building about half a mile.



In the USSR the first stage of D-1 plant №813, was calculated on the total production of 140 grams of 92-93% solution of uranium-235 per night for 2 identical power stages of the 3100 separation stages. Under the production was allocated an unfinished aircraft factory in the village verkh-neyvinsky, 60 km from Sverdlovsk. Later, he turned to Sverdlovsk-44, and the 813th plant (pictured) in the Ural Electrochemical Plant - the world's largest manufacture of separation.



Although technology diffusion separation, albeit with great technical difficulties, it was established, the idea of ​​the development of more economical centrifuge process is not on the agenda. After all, if we can create a centrifuge, the power consumption will be reduced from 20 to 50 times!

How does the centrifuge?
It is arranged over elementary and similar to the old washing machine, operates on a "spin / dryer." The sealed housing is rotating rotor. This rotor is supplied with gas (UF6). Due to centrifugal force, hundreds of thousands of times greater than Earth's gravitational field, the gas begins to be divided into "heavy" and "light" fractions. Light and heavy molecules begin to be grouped into different zones of the rotor, but not in the center and the perimeter, and in the top and the bottom. This occurs because of convection currents - rotor cover is heated and there is a backflow of gas. At the top and bottom of the cylinder are two small tubes - intake. In the lower tube gets lean mixture in the top - a mix with a higher concentration of atoms of 235U. This mixture next enters the centrifuge, and so on, until the concentration of uranium-235 is at the desired value. The chain of centrifuges, called a cascade.



Technical features.
Well in the first rotation speed - from the current generation of centrifuges it reaches 2000 rpm / s (here do not even know what to compare ... 10 times faster than the turbine aircraft engines)! And it works without stopping three decades! Ie Now rotate the centrifuge cascades included even under Brezhnev! The Soviet Union no longer exists, and they are all spinning and spinning. It is not difficult to calculate that for a duty cycle of the rotor makes 2 000 000 000 000 (two trillion) revolutions. And what bearing this stand? Yes, no! No there bearings. The rotor itself is a plain top, at the bottom of his solid needle, based on corundum thrust bearing and the upper end of the hanging in a vacuum, keeping the electromagnetic field. The needle is also not simple, made of ordinary wire piano wire, hardened, it is very tricky way (how - ADT). It is not difficult to imagine that at such breakneck speed, she centrifuge must not only be strong, and heavy-duty.

Academician Joseph Friedlander recalls: "Three times it is able to shoot. One day, when we have already received the Lenin Prize, there was a major accident at the centrifuge lid came off. The pieces were scattered and destroyed other centrifuges. Rose radioactive cloud. I had to stop the whole line - kilometer settings! In Sredmash centrifuges commanded by General Zverev, to the atomic project he worked in the Office of Beria. General at the meeting said: "The situation is critical. Under the threat of the country's defense. If we do not quickly improve the situation, for you to repeat 37th year. " And once the meeting closed. We then came up with a completely new technology with a completely isotropic uniform structure covers, but required very complex installation. Since it is such and the lid are produced. No trouble no more. In Russia, 3 enrichment plant, centrifuges, many hundreds of thousands. »
In the photo: the test of the first generation of centrifuges



orpusa rotors too, initially had metal until replaced them did not come ... carbon fiber. Lightweight and extra strong to break, it is an ideal material for a rotating cylinder.

Recalls UEIP Director General (2009-2012), Alexander Kurkin: "It got to the ridiculous. When tested, and tested a new, more "resourceful" generation of centrifuges, one of the employees did not wait for the rotor to a complete stop, take it off the stage and decided to transfer to the hands of the stand. For instead of moving forward, if not resisted, he was with the cylinder in an embrace, began to move back. So we are personally convinced that the earth rotates, and a gyroscope, a great power. »

Who invented?
Oh, it's a mystery, immersed in a mystery wrapped unknown. Then you and the German Physics captive, the CIA, the officers of SMERSH and even downed pilot spy Powers. In general, the principle of a gas centrifuge is described in the late 19th century.
Even at the dawn of the Atomic Project Engineer Special Design Bureau of the Kirov factory Viktor Sergeyev offered a centrifugal separation method, but first his colleagues do not approve of the idea. In parallel, on the creation of a special centrifuge separation SRI-5 in Sukhumi fought scientists from defeated Germany: Dr. Max Steenbeck, who under Hitler was a leading engineer of Siemens, the mechanic and former "Luftwaffe", a graduate of the University of Vienna Gernot Zippe. In total, the group consisted of about 300 "exported" physicists.

Recalls General Director of "Centrotech-SPb" SC "Rosatom" Alex Kaliteevskii "Our experts have come to the conclusion that the German centrifuge is completely unsuitable for industrial production. The device has not been Steenbeck transmission system partially enriched product in the next stage. It was suggested to cool the ends of the cover and freeze the gas, and then unfreeze it, collect and bring to the next centrifuge. That is, the circuit inoperable. However, the project had some very interesting and unusual technical solutions. These "interesting and unusual solutions" were connected with the results obtained by Soviet scientists, in particular with the proposals of Victor Sergeev. Relatively speaking, our compact centrifuge - a third of the fruit of German thought, but two-thirds - of the Soviet. " Incidentally, when Sergeyev visited Abkhazia and expressed the same Steenbeek Zippe and his thoughts about the selection of uranium and Steenbeek Zippe shrugged off them like unrealizable.

So what came up Sergeev.
A proposal Sergeyev was to create a sampler of gas in the form of Pitot tubes. But Dr. Steenbeek, ate his teeth as he thought on this subject, showed categorical: "They will slow down the flow, to cause turbulence, and no separation will not!" Years later, while working on the memoirs, he regret it: "The idea is worthy To come from us! But to me it never occurred ... ».
Later, once outside the USSR Steenbeek centrifuge is no longer engaged. But Gerontius Zippe before leaving for Germany had the opportunity to get acquainted with the prototype centrifuge Sergeyev and ingeniously simple principle of its work. Once in the West, "a cunning Zippe," as it is often called, patented design of the centrifuge under his own name (patent №1071597 from 1957, declared in 13 countries). In 1957, he moved to the United States, Zippe built a working unit, reproducing from memory prototype Sergeyev. And he called her, pay tribute, "Russian centrifuge" (pictured).



Incidentally, the Russian engineering thought manifested itself in many other cases. As an example, elemental emergency shut-off valve. There sensors detekterov and electronic circuits. There is only samovar tap that their concerns petal frame stage. If something goes wrong, and the centrifuge changes its position in space, he just turns around and closes the input line. It's like the joke about the American and Russian pen pencil in space.



Our days
This week, this writer attended the landmark event - the closing of the Russian office of observer US Department of Energy under the HEU-LEU. This deal (highly enriched uranium - low enriched uranium) has been, and remains the largest agreement in the field of nuclear energy between Russia and America. Under the contract, the Russian nuclear scientists processed 500 tons of our weapons (90%) of uranium fuel (4%) of HFCs for US nuclear power plants. Revenues for the years 1993-2009 amounted to 8, 8 billion. US dollars. It was a logical outcome of our technological breakthrough in the field of nuclear isotope separation made in the postwar years.
Photo: cascades of gas centrifuges in one of the shops UEIP. There are about 100 000 pieces.



Thanks centrifuges we got tons of relatively cheap, both military and commercial products. The nuclear industry is one of the few remaining (military aircraft, space), where Russia holds indisputable superiority. One only foreign orders for the next ten years (from 2013 to 2022), the portfolio of "Rosatom" contract without the HEU is 69, 3 billion dollars. In 2011, he passed for 50 billion ...
In the photo storage containers HFCs UEIP.

September 28, 1942 was accepted by the State Committee of Defense number 2352ss "On the organization of the uranium." This date is considered the official start of counting the history of Russian nuclear industry.

EVERYTHING!

hence



Source: