Inventor of the first nuclear reactor in the soviet union
Abram Isaakovich Alikhanov was a Soviet Armenian experimental physicist who specialized in particle and nuclear physics. He was one of the Soviet Union’s leading physicists.
Alikhanov studied X-rays and cosmic rays before joining the Soviet atomic bomb project. Between 1945 and 1968 he directed the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP) in Moscow, which was named after him in 2004. He led the development of both the first research and the first industrial heavy water reactors in the Soviet Union. They were commissioned in 1949 and 1951, respectively. He was also a pioneer in Soviet accelerator technology. In 1934 he and Igor Kurchatov created a « baby cyclotron », the first « cyclotron » operating outside of Berkeley, California. He was the driving force behind the construction of the 70 GeV synchrotron in Serpukhov (1967), the largest in the world at the time.
Early life
Alikhanov was born in1904 in Elizavetpol (today Ganja, Azerbaijan) to Armenian parents. His younger brother, Artem Alikhanian (1908–78), was also a noted physicist. His family lived in Alexandropol (today Gyumri) in 1912–13, where Abram attended a commercial college. The family then moved to Tiflis (today Tbilisi), where they lived until 1918. They again moved to live in Alexandropol until the Turkish–Armenian War of 1920. They returned to Tiflis and Abram graduated from a Tiflis commercial college in 1921. He then enrolled in the Polytechnic Institute of Tiflis, but, for the most part, did not study in order to financially support himself and his family. He worked as a cashier and telephone operator.
Nuclear reactor
The laboratory/institute initially focused on what Alikhanov had already begun working on: construction of a nuclear reactor based on heavy water. With a small staff, Alikhanov led the design of the first reactor by 1947. It was built in 1948 and successfully put into operation on April 25, 1949. Alikhanov was personally heavily involved in the project. He solved all the « physical and technical problems that arose in construction of the reactor, » and tackled the « dirtiest jobs without hesitation; thus the reactor was for the most part his creature. » It was the first heavy-water research reactor in the USSR. A number of studies and discoveries were done based on it. It was shut down in 1987.
The reactor was not invented for nuclear power generation, but instead for experiments that would advance the design and construction of other reactors. In 1959 Alikhanov led the design of 10 MW experimental research heavy-water reactors, which were built in China and Yugoslavia under his supervision.
Alikhanov also led the project of design the first industrial heavy-water reactor in the Soviet Union. Named OK-180, it was commissioned in October 1951 in Chelyabinsk-65. Its heat exchangers froze shortly after it began operating. It was decommissioned in 1965 and subsequently disassembled. Until the end of his career, Alikhanov « remained a renowned head and a strong advocate » of heavy-water reactors, though graphite-moderated reactors were given the preference for their price.
Recognition and legacy
The Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP), which Alikhanov led from its inception in 1945 until 1968, was named after him in 2004.
A street in Yerevan is named for the Alikhanian brothers, while Academician Alikhanov Street in Moscow was renamed in 2018.
An hour long documentary film on Alikhanov was produced by the Public TV of Armenia in 2019.
