Soviet Academician Nikolai Antonovich Dollezhal is a key figure in the USSR project to create an atomic bomb. In addition, he was the chief designer of the RBMK and nuclear power reactors, which are still in operation today. The professor lived a life of more than a hundred years and devoted it all to science.
Biography
Nikolai Antonovich Dollezhal was born in the Ukrainian village of Omelnik on October 27, 1899. His father, Anton Ferdinandovich, a Czech by birth, was a zemstvo railway engineer. In 1912, the family moved to Podolsk near Moscow, where his father had a new job. In this city, in 1917, Nikolai graduated from college, after which he became a student at the Moscow State Technical University named after N. E. Bauman. He studied at the Faculty of Mechanics, where his father once received his education.
Anton Ferdinandovich believed that one cannot become a real engineer if one does not work with one's hands and does not feel the metal, he instilled these beliefs in his son. Therefore, in parallel with his studies, the future academician Dollezhal began to workfirst at the depot, and then at the locomotive repair plant.
In 1923, the young man graduated from the university and received a degree in mechanical engineering.
Work in the pre-war and war years
In 1925-1930. Nikolai Antonovich worked in design organizations. In 1929, he did an internship in European countries: Czechoslovakia, Austria and Germany. Upon the return of Dollezhal, the organs of the OGPU of the USSR were arrested, accusing him of being associated with pests who were involved in the case of the Industrial Party. The investigation lasted a year and a half, and all this time the future academician was in prison. In January 1932, he was released without charge.
After the conclusion, Nikolai Antonovich Dollezhal worked as deputy chief engineer in a special design bureau of the technical department of the OGPU. In 1933 he was appointed technical director of Giproazotmash in Leningrad. A year later, he was transferred to Kharkov Khimmashtrest to the position of deputy manager. In the autumn of 1935, Nikolai Antonovich became the chief engineer of the Bolshevik plant in Kyiv. In December 1938, he went to work at the Moscow Research Institute "VIGM".
In July 1941, the future academician Dollezhal was appointed chief engineer of Uralkhimmash, which was being built in Sverdlovsk. In 1943, he became the director and supervisor of the Scientific Research Institute of Chemical Engineering. It was not just a scientific institute, but a complex of research and design departments with developed production and experimental bases.
Building a nuclear reactor
In 1946, research institutes attractedto the Soviet atomic project. Nikolai Antonovich and many of his employees took up the development of the first industrial nuclear reactors for the production of weapons-grade plutonium. Within the institute, a special unit was created to carry out the work, conditionally called the "Hydrosector".
Date by this time was already 46 years old, and he had great knowledge in various technical fields: compressor engineering, heat power engineering, and the chemical industry. In February 1946, Nikolai Antonovich proposed a vertical layout of the future reactor, and it was accepted for implementation.
The designed "unit A" was launched in June 1948. And in August 1949, they successfully tested the first atomic bomb from plutonium produced on it. This was followed in 1951 by the development, design and commissioning of an experimental "AI unit", which was designed to produce tritium. The resulting products allowed our country to be the first to show the power of a thermonuclear explosion. This is how the Soviet nuclear shield began to be forged.
Start up nuclear power plant
The ideas of Nikolai Antonovich, implemented in the first uranium-graphite apparatus, were the basis for the design and construction of future energy channel reactors. The domestic nuclear power industry began to develop in this direction from the beginning of the operation of the Obninsk NPP in 1954 - the world's first nuclear power plant, the heart of which was the channel "AM unit".
The nuclear power plant was started up when Dollezhal was already working as director of NII-8, an institute created in 1952 by the government to developnuclear power plant, which was to be used in the design and construction of the first nuclear submarine in the Union.
Creation of nuclear submarines
From the end of 1952, the staff of the scientific institute launched an intense activity in the design of nuclear power plants with a pressurized pressurized reactor. It was the first time such a device was created in the country, so it was necessary to look for new solutions in many scientific and technical areas.
In March 1956, scientists at the stand made a physical start-up of the VM-A reactor, and two years later the device began to work on the ship. After sea trials, the submarine was accepted into trial operation, and from that time on, first-generation nuclear submarines began to be mass-produced.
In the Soviet Union, the merits of the team led by Dollezhal were highly appreciated. In 1959 NII-8 was awarded the Order of Lenin. In 1962, Nikolai Antonovich became an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Designing new reactors
Dollezhal's ability to competently coordinate the work of designers and solve the assigned tasks bore fruit. After VM-A, the first block reactor V-5 was created - for its time, the most powerful in the world. He allowed the first submarine with a titanium hull to develop a record underwater speed, which still remains unsurpassed.
Then, under the guidance of Academician Dollezhal, they designed MBU-40 - the first monoblock reactor plant. In 1980-1990. on its basis, they created the energy of one of the types of ships that are in operation to this day.
Not less thanThe team of Nikolai Antonovich also worked fruitfully in the "ground" nuclear power industry.
In 1958, the dual-purpose reactor EI-2, designed at NII-8, was launched to produce weapons-grade plutonium and energy on an industrial scale. It became the basis of the first block of the Siberian NPP.
Also, in 1964 and 1967, the institute developed fundamentally new reactors for the Beloyarsk NPP named after IV Kurchatov, the first large nuclear power plant in the Soviet energy sector. They implemented Dollezhal's long-standing idea of nuclear superheating of steam, which significantly increased the thermal efficiency of power plants.
Building RBMK reactors
In the 1960s, the Soviet Union began to experience difficulties with energy supplies. In order to radically and quickly solve this problem, they began to build large nuclear power plants. Nikolai Antonovich Dollezhal headed the design of a series of RBMK reactors designed for power units with a capacity of 1 thousand MW.
In 1967, the installation blueprint was released. At the end of 1973, the power unit with RBMK began to work at the Leningrad NPP. In 1975-1985. thirteen more such installations were built and put into operation. Together they produced almost half of the nuclear electricity in the USSR. Then the scientists improved the design of the RBMK, which made it possible to increase the power of the apparatus by one and a half times. Such reactors were installed at two units of the Ignalina NPP, which became the most powerful in the world.
Security issues and new developments
Academician Dollezhal was confident in the designreactors under construction, but he was concerned about ensuring the reliability of nuclear power plants and environmental and economic problems. From the mid-1970s, he often raised these topics in publications and speeches, speaking about the need to raise the level of technical culture in the installation and operation of nuclear technology. As for environmental safety, Nikolai Antonovich suggested creating nuclear power complexes that would use fast neutron reactors, including fuel cycle processes.
Nuclear technology and science in the Soviet Union developed rapidly, which required a large-scale expansion of the experimental base. Proceeding from this, from the end of the 1950s, Academician Dollezhal began to direct the forces of his research institute to the creation of various research reactors. As a result, pool-type IRTs were created that are easy to use, as well as the devices RVD, MIR, SM-2, IBR-2, IVV-2, IVG-1, unique in terms of experimental capabilities and characteristics.
Teaching activities
Nikolai Antonovich wanted to train competent and qualified specialists for the design of new equipment, so from the end of the 1920s he began to teach at universities. He was engaged in such activities for almost sixty years, of which for almost a quarter of a century he headed the Department of Nuclear Power Plants at the Moscow State Technical University. N. E. Bauman.
For forty years, the outstanding scientist led the development of various nuclear reactors, paved new paths in this scientific field, brought up in his employees the spirit of creative activity and high responsibilityfor the cause. For 34 years, Dollezhal worked as the director of the institute, which became one of the largest centers of nuclear technology and technology in the Russian Federation.
Last years of life
In 1986, due to illness, the academician resigned from administrative positions, but continued to be interested in the affairs of research institutes and to help advice and recommendations to his followers and students.
In the last years of his life, Nikolai Antonovich was fond of solving old mathematical and geometric problems about squaring a circle, trisecting an angle, and doubling a cube. He also listened to classical music, read books and occasionally wrote poetry. Dollezhal considered radio and television to be a great misfortune for mankind. The academician said that these inventions interfere with thinking and teach to believe stupid announcers.
Nikolai Antonovich died at the age of 101 on 2000-20-11. His wife died four years later. They are buried in the village of Kozino, Moscow Region.
Memory
In 2002, a bust was erected in Moscow to Academician Dollezhal.
In December 2010, one of the streets of the city of Podolsk was named after him, where Nikolai Antonovich spent his childhood and youth. Also, a memorial plaque was installed in the building of the former school where he studied.
In September 2018, Academician Dollezhal Square appeared in the Central Administrative District of the Russian capital. It is located in front of the research institute, which was led by a scientist.
