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Valentin Klimov

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Valentin Nikolayevich Klimov (Russian: Валентин Николаевич Kлимов) was a Russian theoretical physicist and mathematician. He was a co-developer of the RDS-37 (the Soviet Union's first two-stage thermonuclear device) and worked on statistical mechanics, plasmas and nuclear reactors.

Career

Klimov was a student of Nikolay Bogolyubov at the Academy Institute for Chemical Physics. He worked as a laboratory assistant there, along with Dmitry Shirkov. Director Nikolay Semyonov assented to Bogolyubov's suggestion that they be employed as full-time workers. Klimov worked in a single, secure room with his colleagues. In March 1950, he and other researchers were given short notice to move, again under tight security, to what was known as KB-11 ('Design Bureau-11') or Arzamas-16, the closed city of Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast (today it is the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (VNIIEF)).

The purpose was to develop the Soviet hydrogen bomb. He was involved in calculations including for many-layered nuclear systems and neutron moderation. Klimov, Shirkov, Vasily Vladimirov, I.А. Zhernak and А.А. Bunatyan developed mathematical approaches to tasks involving neutron propagation and thermalisation.[1][2][3]

In another team of Bogolyubov's, with Dmitry Zubarev and Yuri Tserkovnikov, he investigated magnetic thermonuclear reactor design, studied the behaviour and stability of plasma contained in a magnetic field and the interaction between the plasma and the reactor vessel wall.[1] With Zubarev, he wrote a number of papers on plasma physics, developed the theory of temperature jumps at the plasma boundary in a magnetic field, and wrote on stationary conditions in a magnetic thermonuclear reactor. Klimov did not get on well with Bogolyubov (who had a more fruitful professional relationship with both Shirkov and Zubarev), and once Bogolyubov was given permission to leave "the Installation", Andrei Sakharov took Klimov into his group.[4] The RDS-6 bomb, Sakharov's 'layer cake' design on which Klimov had done a part of the theoretical work, was tested in 1953. Klimov was one of the fifteen authors of the design report detailing the configuration and calculations for the RDS-6's successor, the first Soviet two-stage nuclear device, the RDS-37.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]

Personality

Klimov regularly ridiculed perceived lies in press reports. He was regarded as a pioneer of different thinking by some, supporting people's rights, and was openly defiant, to the surprise and dismay of his colleagues who considered such behaviour perilous. He was often called to the gorkom (political committee) to receive warnings.[14]

At KB-11, Klimov quickly became the outdoor activities leader in the group in swimming, walking, running at the local stadium and any other athletic pursuits.[4] He was killed before his thirtieth year in a snow avalanche in the Caucusus mountains.[2][14]

References

  1. ^ a b "Atomic project and N.N.Bogolyubov Professional life of N.N.Bogolyubov in design bureau bureau–11, Sarov" (PDF). www.jinr.ru. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  2. ^ a b Shirkov, D.V. (2009). "Remembering Nikolai Nikolaevich Bogoliubov". arXiv:0912.2424 [physics.hist-ph].
  3. ^ Nikiforov, Arnold F.; Novikov, Vladimir G.; Uvarov, Vasili B. (2005). Quantum-Statistical Models of Hot Dense Matter. Basel: Birkhäuser. pp. xvii.
  4. ^ a b Sakharov, Andrei (1990). Memoirs. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 119.
  5. ^ Gorelik, Gennady. "The riddle of the third idea: how did the Soviets build a thermonuclear bomb so suspiciously fast?". blogs.scientificamerican.com. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  6. ^ Goncharov, G.A. (1996). "American and Soviet H-bomb development programmes: historical background" (PDF). Physics-Uspekhi. 39 (10): 1033–1044. Bibcode:1996PhyU...39.1033G. doi:10.1070/PU1996v039n10ABEH000174. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  7. ^ "Tsar Bomba". www.atomicheritage.org. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  8. ^ "Big Ivan, The Tsar Bomba ("King of Bombs"): The World's Largest Nuclear Weapon". nuclearweaponarchive.org. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  9. ^ Khariton, Yuli; Adamskii, Viktor; Smirnov, Yuri (1996). "The Way It Was". The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 52 (96): 58. Bibcode:1996BuAtS..52f..53K. doi:10.1080/00963402.1996.11456679.
  10. ^ Zubarev, D.M.; Klimov, V.N. (1961). Leontovich, M.A. (ed.). "The theory of the temperature jump at the boundary of a plasma in a magnetic field". Plasma Physics and Problems of Controlled Thermonuclear Reactions. 1: 162. Bibcode:1961ppp1.conf..162Z.
  11. ^ Zubarev, D.M.; Klimov, V.N. (1958). "Stationary States of a Magnetic Thermonuclear Reactor". Physics of Plasmas and Problems of Controlled Thermonuclear Reactions: 249–288.
  12. ^ Editorial Board (2008). "DMITRY NIKOLAEVICH ZUBAREV (11.27.1917–29.07.1992) ON HIS 90TH BIRTHDAY". Teoreticheskaya I Matematicheskaya Fizika. 154 (1): 5–8.
  13. ^ Gaponov, Yu. V. (2003). "Igor' Vasil'Evich Kurchatov: The Scientist And Doer (January 12, 1903–February 7, 1960)". Physics of Atomic Nuclei. 66 (1): 1–5. Bibcode:2003PAN....66....1G. doi:10.1134/1.1540651. S2CID 119603044.
  14. ^ a b Ritus, V.A. (1991). Drell, Sidney D.; Kapitza, Sergei P. (eds.). Sakharov Remembered: A Tribute by Friends and Colleagues. New york: American Institute of Physics.
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