Igor Kurchatov
Soviet nuclear physicist (1903-1960)
Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov (Russian: Игорь Васильевич Курчатов); (12 January 1903 – 7 February 1960), was a Soviet physicist who played a central role in organizing and directing the former Soviet program of nuclear weapons.
Quotes
edit- In work, Comrade Stalin said, it is necessary to move decisively, with the investment of a decisive quantity of resources, but in the basic directions. It is also necessary to use Germany to the utmost; there, there are people, and equipment, and experience, and factories. Comrade Stalin asked about the work of German scholars and the benefits which they brought to us.
- It was not worth engaging in small-scale work, but necessary to conduct the work broadly, with Russian scope. . . . It was not necessary to seek cheaper paths.
- "Science and Secrecy" in NYTimes Books (2 October 1994)
- Human life is not eternal, but science and knowledge cross the threshold of centuries.
- In any case, it is important to prioritize. Otherwise, the secondary, although necessary, will take all your strength and will not allow you to reach the main one.
- Of foremost significance among the more important problems of modern engineering science is utilization of the energy of thermonuclear reactions. Physicists the world over are attracted by the extraordinarily interesting and very difficult task of controlling thermonuclear reaction.
- As is known, thermonuclear reactions can arise if the temperature of matter is sufficiently high for atomic nuclei to surmount the forces of the Coulomb barrier with appreciable probability daring thermal collisions. The excitation of thermonuclear reaction in deuterium or in a mixture of deuterium and tritium is especially interesting since in this case a noticeable effect should be obtainable at relatively low temperatures.
- Physics is indebted to the founder of nuclear physics, Ernest Rutherford, for information regarding the interaction of deuterons. In one Of his last investigations Rutherford studied the nuclear reactions that occur when two deuterons collide. It was difficult to suspect at that time that the new facts discovered by him would help realize our hope of mastering the energy sources of the hot interior of the sun and distant stars that shine overhead.
- On the one hand, there are the approaches that lead to stationary thermonuclear reactions, and on the other hand, those that are based on the idea of utilizing an instantaneous temperature rise in transient processes of very brief duration. However, irrespective of the way the investigation is carried out, there is one problem that is inevitably encountered; namely, the insulation of the plasma, which is heated to a high temperature, from the walls of the vessel in which it is confined, In other words, a means must be found to keep the fast particles within the plasma over a period sufficient for the particles to have a good chance to react with each other.
- In a sufficiently strong magnetic field, electrons and ions can move freely only along the lines of magnetic force. In a plane normal to these lines of force the particles will move along circles of small radius. The positions of the centers of these circles can vary only as a result of collisions, each collision displacing the center by a distance of the same order of magnitude as the radius of curvature of the particle trajectory.
- Inductive reactance is much larger than atomic resistance in pulsed discharges in which the current In- creases+ at a high rate. Thus, by using current and voltage oscillograms one' may find the time dependence of the inductance of the plasma column and hence determine how the radius of the column changes at various stages.
- Under certain conditions acceleration of ions in a longitudinal electric field may also be possible outside the central zone of the discharge due to the presence of space charges.
- We considered here some features of the phenomena that accompany the passage of Intense pulse discharges through rarefied gases. The success of further work in this direction will greatly depend on the possibility of creating conditions under which the plasma column will experience multiple oscillations during build-up of the current without coming into contact with the walls.
- On appraising the various approaches to the problem of obtaining Intense thermonuclear reactions, we do not deem it possible to completely exclude further attempts to attain this goal by using pulse discharges. However, other possibilities must also be carefully considered.
