Nuclear program ussr

Nuclear Weapons Timeline. Early Nuclear Weapons. Nuclear Weapons Development. Destructive Impact of Nuclear Weapons. Nuclear Weapons Effects. The Current Stockpile. Arms Control and Disarmament. Nuclear deterrence. Nuclear forensics. During this hearing of the Joint Committee of Atomic Energy JCAE , a defensive Director of Central Intelligence Roscoe Hillenkoetter argued that "our estimate was not too far off in the first place" because it was an "error of a few months" p.

Nevertheless, a fuller picture emerged when Chairman Sen. One of the Republicans, Senator Eugene D. Milliken CO , observed that it was a "very bad mis-estimate" and that "we have not had an organization adequate to what is going on in the past and [Hillenkoetter] gives me no assurance that we are going to have one in the future.

For example, Rep. Chester Holifield D-CA observed that "you can't order a piece of intelligence out of Russia like you order groceries in the morning. Johnson D-CO questioned why the Soviets would "stumble on to the very best way to do this job without a little assistance from some place or the other.

A brief analysis of the Soviet test in this CIA publication found that the Soviets had gained a political advantage. Despite the test, it did not fundamentally change the U. To deal with the strategic issues raised by the Soviet bomb, the CIA produced a long analysis, focusing not only on Soviet nuclear capabilities but also on Moscow's intentions and the extent to which a nuclear weapons capability increased the risk of U.

While U. Some of the interview-based reports have already been declassified and published in a National Security Archive posting. This report, along with the next two documents, add to the knowledge base of the work on the German scientists, although they have to be checked against other sources. At the end of this document, like the two that follow, are excised pages that probably list the German scientists and technicians who had been interviewed.

Research on electromagnetic separation of uranium isotopes began at Sinop but was eventually given low priority because the gaseous diffusion method proved more successful. Gernot Zippe, identified as the head of Ultracentrifuge Team I, later became an important source on the progress of the Soviet gas centrifuge program. The drafters of this report did not have access to Zippe and the Steenbeck group, who did not return to the West until late Born in Russia, Riehl directed research at the Auer Company, which manufactured uranium metal for the Nazi atomic weapons project.

Zaveniagin who were in Berlin after the Nazi collapse made Riehl an offer to produce uranium in a Soviet laboratory. They then successfully processed uranium tetrafluoride UF 4 into pure uranium metal.

In both instances, the reducing element was the pure calcium produced by the plant at Bitterfeld, East Germany see document …. Norton, , For details, see Charles A. Donald P. Intelligence Memorandum No. For a detailed account, see Gordin, Red Cloud at Dawn , Truman later reprimanded Senator Johnson for the disclosure. Melvyn P.

Ziegler and Jacobson, Spying Without Spies , For Soviet production of highly pure graphite and the construction of a production reactor near Kyshtym, see Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb , and Lockhart, and Irving H. Pavel V. For more on gaseous diffusion, see Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb , During this trip, the Soviets also acquired hundred tons of uranium oxide that the Germans had hidden.

Skip to main content. Read the Documents. Part I: Overview of the Discovery. Document Feb 1, Sep 1, Henry S. Jan 1, Jun 30, Director of Central Intelligence R. The missile was deadly accurate. I was proud of our country, which had long been backward but now had its own sophisticated weapons. Beginning in , Chinese scientists also began to develop thermonuclear weapons.

Once again, the Chinese nuclear program likely benefited from Klaus Fuchs, who passed his rudimentary knowledge of the hydrogen bomb to Qian Sangiang when they met in China tested its first H-bomb bomb on June 17, , with a force of 3.

China acquired thermonuclear weapons only 32 months after its first atomic bomb test, much faster than the United States over 7 years after its first test and the Soviet Union almost 4 years after its first test took to build their respective hydrogen bombs. Meanwhile, work resumed on the previously abandoned Jiuquan plant, which produced its first weapons-grade plutonium in September , giving Beijing multiple paths to build nuclear weapons.

Although China never signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty , it nonetheless began to conduct underground nuclear tests in , probably because they were more difficult for neighboring countries to detect. In total, China conducted 45 nuclear tests, all at Lop Nur, with the last one on July 29, American scientist Danny Stillman was allowed to visit some of the nuclear sites during the s. Additionally, China sold intermediate range ballistic missiles IRBMs —albeit without nuclear warheads—to Saudi Arabia, sold missile components to Iraq, and trained Libyan nuclear experts in Beijing.

Beijing also joined the Nuclear Suppliers Group NSG in , which limits the export of nuclear materials to countries who support non-proliferation. Today, China has approximately nuclear warheads, including ICBMs and four nuclear submarines.

Chansoria, Monika. The Wilson Center Digital Archive. Reed, Thomas C. Ginzburg subsequently added the "second idea": the improvement of using Li-6 D fuel instead of liquid deuterium and tritium. Sakharov is generally accorded the title of "Father of the Soviet Hydrogen Bomb", a title he began earning by being the lead theoretical designer of the sloika. Andrei Sakharov in 21 K. Andrei Sakharov in 26 K.

Click here to see a picture of Vitali Ginzburg 13 K. The detonation of the RDS-6s device, the fifth Soviet nuclear test dubbed "Joe 4" in the west demonstrated the use of fusion in a weaponizable design. Not a "true" hydrogen bomb, this device obtained nearly all of its yield from fission and was limited for practical purposes to yields of less than a megaton.

It was never widely deployed. The RDS-6s used a U fissile core surrounded by alternating layers of fusion fuel lithium-6 deuteride spiked with tritium , and fusion tamper natural uranium inside a high explosive implosion system. The small U fission bomb acted as the trigger about 40 kt. Efforts to extend the "Sloika" design to higher yields proved infeasible, and following the successful test of Joe-4, the program stagnated. The U. The first conceptual breakthrough came sometime in late This breakthrough is apparently attributable to Davidenko.

Left is a January sketch by Zel'dovich and Sakharov, addressed to Yuli Khariton, that shows a transitional concept for the hydrogen bomb. The concept shown is equivalent to Stanislaw Ulam's breakthrough of separate staging, using an atomic trigger to compress the thermonuclear secondary. Like Ulam's initial concept, it is based on hydrodynamic compression rather than radiation implosion.

Click here for an easier to read photocopy version and translation. The second breakthrough came in March or April , after the 15 Mt U. This second American high yield thermonuclear test stimulated Soviet efforts, and was rewarded with the discovery of radiation implosion. Sakharov worked out the theoretical basis for this process, and is credited with the discovery.

This was also the world's first air-dropped fusion bomb test and the 24th Soviet test overall.