Obninsk: number one

摘要

The world's first nuclear power plant was built on the site of V Laboratory -Nuclear Center, established in 1946 (now State Scientific Center AJ Leipunsky Institute for Physics and Power Engineering), 100km from Moscow. This small nuclear plant has become a symbol of the peaceful use of atomic energy, and the date of its startup has been universally recognised as the birthday of nuclear power. The suggestion to use nuclear power for electricity generation was made repeatedly by academicians V I Ver-nadsky, S I Vavilov and P L Kapitsa before and during World War Ⅱ, however, its implementation became possible only after successful tests of nuclear weapons in the Soviet Union in 1949 prompted a government decision in May 1950. General scientific supervision of the project was fulfilled by I V Kurchatov, who at that time was responsible for uranium management in the USSR. L P Beriya, the head of the Special Committee, was the general manager of the project and B L Vannikov, the head of the Primary General Department of the Council of Ministers of the USSR was responsible for flexible and efficient decision making. Professor N A Dollezhal, director of Niikhimmash Design Institute (now NIKIET) was appointed general designer of the plant and A I Gutov, director of the Leningrad Project Institute was appointed general architect of the project. From March 1951, general scientific supervision of the whole work programme on creation of the first nuclear power plant was fulfilled by D I Blokhintsev, the director of V Laboratory.