Academician Flerov Georgy Nikolaevich. Flerov, Georgy Nikolaevich: biography

96 ].

Flerov's letter

At the beginning of the war, G. N. Flerov was drafted into the army and sent to the Leningrad Air Force Academy for training as an engineer servicing Pe-2 dive bombers. The thought of nuclear physics did not leave Flerov. He wrote to Ioffe in Kazan about his desire to speak at a seminar there with evidence of the reality of the atomic bomb. See Flerov's letter. Flerov was sent from Yoshkar-Ola, where the Air Force Academy was evacuated, to Kazan, which was 120 kilometers away.

There, in mid-December 1941, he spoke to a group of scientists, among whom were Ioffe and Kapitsa [28]. Having failed to achieve the resumption of work on nuclear physics (his letter and five telegrams to Kaftanov were ignored, and conversations with Ioffe led nowhere), Flerov writes a letter to Kurchatov, and then to Stalin.

Scientists at the Institute of Physics and Technology repeatedly discussed this possibility among themselves and were concerned about the secrecy of nuclear research in Germany. Kurchatov himself supported Flerov’s proposal to resume work on the uranium problem, but could not judge whether it was possible to carry it out in difficult wartime conditions [96].

In 1943, Flerov was recalled from the Air Force Academy, where he taught (in Yoshkar-Ola), he came to Kazan, and after a while he left for Moscow to visit Kurchatov. Cm.

FLYOROV Georgy Nikolaevich (2.III.1913 – 19.XI.1990)- Soviet experimental physicist, academician (1968; corresponding member 1953). R. in Rostov-on-Don. He graduated from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (1938) and began working in the laboratory of I.V. Kurchatov at the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology. In 1943 - 60, head of the sector of the Institute of Atomic Energy named after. I. V. Kurchatova, since 1960 - Director of the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna)

The works relate to nuclear physics, nuclear energy, and cosmic ray physics. In 1940, together with K.A. Pietrzak discovered a new type of radioactive transformation - spontaneous fission of uranium nuclei, with L.I. Rusinov proved (1939) that during the fission of uranium nuclei more than two secondary neutrons are emitted. From the end of 1942, when work on the atomic problem began in the Soviet Union, Flerov was in a group of physicists led by I.V. Kurchatov, who began the analysis and development of the entire complex of this problem. He took an active part in creating the foundations of nuclear energy, in particular, he studied the dependence of the cross sections for the radiative capture of slow neutrons on their energy.

In the post-war years, he continued work on the physics of nuclear fission, carried out a number of experiments on the study of cosmic rays, used nuclear physics methods in geological exploration, in particular improved (1951) neutron logging methods, and carried out a lot of work on the application of nuclear physics methods in the national economy.

Since 1953, he began research in a new direction of nuclear physics - in the field of synthesis of new transuranium elements, he developed methods for the production and acceleration of multiply charged heavy ions, created sources of such ions and improved the heavy ion accelerator, developed physicochemical methods for the rapid isolation of unknown reaction products and their identification, especially by spontaneous division.
Together with his colleagues, he synthesized a number of new isotopes of trans-fermium elements with serial numbers 102, 103, 104, 105, 106 and 107, and studied their physical and chemical properties. For the synthesis and study of the properties of transuranium elements, Flerov was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1967. Together with his colleagues, he discovered (1962) a new type of nuclear isomerism - spontaneously fissile isomers, delayed (after beta decay) fission, the phenomenon of emission of delayed protons, and conducted experiments with isotopes overloaded with neutrons. In 1971, he accelerated xenon ions for the first time on a system of two cyclotrons. He studies the possibility of the existence of superheavy elements, conducts searches for superheavy elements in natural conditions and experiments on their synthesis in reactions with heavy ions.

USSR State Prizes (1946, 1949, 1975). Hero of Socialist Labor (1949).

Essays
On the way to superelements. / G.N. Flerov, A.S. Ilyinov. M. Pedagogy, 1972 (Library Series of the Children's Encyclopedia "Scientists for Schoolchildren").

Interview with G.N. Flerova

Georgy Flerov. From the series "Secret Physicists"

Literature:
Yu.Ts. Oganesyan.

(1968). Hero of Socialist Labor. Winner of the Lenin Prize and twice winner of the Stalin Prize.

Biography

Born in Rostov-on-Don in the family of Nikolai Mikhailovich Flerov (1889-1928) and Elizaveta Pavlovna (Fruma-Leya Peretsovna) Brailovskaya (in her first marriage, Schweitzer, 1888-1942). He had an older brother, Nikolai (1911-1989). The father was the son of a Russian priest from the town of Glukhov, Chernigov province. Mother came from a Rostov Jewish family. While a student at the Faculty of Medicine at Kyiv University, in 1907, his father was expelled from the university for revolutionary activities and exiled to Pechora, where he met his wife. After the end of the exile period, the couple returned to Rostov, where the grandfather and grandmother of the future scientist lived - Perets Khaimovich Brailovsky and Hana Simkhovna Weisberg. Here Georgy and his brother Nikolai graduated from nine-year high school. After the death of their father, both were raised by their mother, who worked as a proofreader in the editorial office of the newspaper "Molot" until she moved to her sons in Leningrad in 1938 (she died in besieged Leningrad in 1942).

After graduating from school in 1929, he worked as a laborer, then, for almost two years, as an assistant electrician at the All-Union Electrotechnical Association in Rostov-on-Don, and eventually as a lubricant at a locomotive repair plant. In 1932, he came to Leningrad, settled with his aunt, the head of the therapeutic department of the Leningrad regional hospital, Sofia Pavlovna Brailovskaya, and went to work as an electrician-parometrist at the Krasny Putilovets plant. In 1933, he was sent by the plant to the Faculty of Engineering and Physics in. He completed his diploma work in 1938 under the guidance of I.V. Kurchatov and was left in the latter’s group.

In the fall of 1941, he was drafted into the army and sent as a lieutenant technician to the 90th reconnaissance aviation squadron of the Air Force Academy of the Southwestern Front, from which he was evacuated to Yoshkar-Ola and entered the school to study electrical maintenance of combat aircraft. In 1942, after graduating from college, he was sent to an air regiment of the active army, but was soon seconded to the disposal of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Scientific and social activities

In the fall of 1942, at the height of the fighting at the front, the article “On the works: “Spontaneous fission of uranium” and “Spontaneous fission of thorium”” was published in the journal “Reports of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR” (1942. Volume XXXVII, No. 2, p. 67).

In 1942 he wrote a letter to I.V. Stalin, in which he proposed resuming work on the creation of an atomic bomb, interrupted by the war. In 1943 he was included in a group of scientists working on the Soviet atomic project. During the creation of the first Soviet atomic bomb

Georgy Nikolaevich Flerov(1913-1990), Russian physicist. Born on March 2, 1913 in Rostov-on-Don. In 1929 he graduated from school and worked as a laboratory assistant, mechanic, and electrician. In 1931 he moved to Leningrad and entered the Krasny Putilovets plant. In 1933 he was sent to study at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute; in 1938 he graduated from the Faculty of Engineering and Physics, the dean of which was A.F. Ioffe, and entered the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology in the laboratory of I.V. Kurchatova. In 1939, together with L.I. Rusinov tried (unsuccessfully) to start a chain reaction of uranium fission. Despite this, scientists were able to determine an important reaction parameter - the number of secondary neutrons. In 1940 (together with K. Pietrzak) he discovered a new type of radioactive transformations - the spontaneous fission of uranium nuclei.

These studies were interrupted by the Patriotic War. In its first days, Flerov joined the militia, but was soon drafted into the army and sent to Yoshkar-Ola as a student at the Air Force Academy. He became an Air Force lieutenant and one day, while in Voronezh, he went into the library of Voronezh University, where, miraculously, he found the latest foreign scientific journals. Flipping through the pages, Flerov discovered that articles on nuclear physics had disappeared from the magazines - this meant that the work was classified. This prompted him to write a letter Stalin, in which he strongly advised the resumption of nuclear research in the USSR. In 1943, Flerov was recalled from the front and included in a group of scientists involved in the creation of Soviet nuclear weapons. He determined the cross section for the interaction of slow neutrons with various materials, the critical masses of uranium-235 and plutonium. In 1949, Flerov participated in testing the first plutonium bomb in the USSR and in the world. In 1951, the scientist also developed methods and equipment for neutron and gamma ray logging of oil wells.

Georgy Flerov conducted further research in Dubna, at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), where he created a laboratory of nuclear reactions and was its first head. Since 1953, he developed methods for producing and accelerating heavy multiply charged ions and physicochemical methods for detecting and isolating unknown products of nuclear reactions, and created ion sources. In 1954, a 150-centimeter cyclotron was built, in which it was possible to accelerate nitrogen nuclei, and in 1955, a source of monoenergetic beams of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen ions was already operating at the Institute of Atomic Energy.

Since 1956, new transuranium elements with serial numbers from 102 to 107 have been synthesized at JINR in Flerov's laboratory; a new type of nuclear isomerism was discovered - spontaneously fissile isomers, as well as delayed (after beta decay) nuclear fission, emission of delayed protons; Methods for producing and accelerating multiply charged heavy atoms have been developed. In 1971, Flerov succeeded in accelerating xenon ions in a system of two cyclotrons. In parallel with the synthesis of heavy nuclei in reactions with heavy ions, work was carried out to search for superheavy elements in natural conditions.

In 1953, Flerov was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and in 1968 - a full member of the academy. The scientist was awarded many state awards - for participation in the Great Patriotic War, for his services in the creation of atomic weapons and for post-war scientific achievements. The scientific community awarded him the Mendeleev Gold Medal (1987) and the Kurchatov Gold Medal (1989).

02.03.1913 - 19.11.1990

In 1938 he graduated from the Faculty of Engineering and Physics of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, whose dean was A.F. Ioffe, and went to work at the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology in the laboratory of I.V. Kurchatova.

In 1939, together with L.I. Rusinov proved that during the fission of uranium nuclei, more than two secondary neutrons are emitted.

In 1940, together with K.A. Petrzak discovered the spontaneous fission of uranium nuclei.

In the first days of the war G.N. Flerov joined the militia, but was soon drafted into the army and sent to Yoshkar-Ola as a student at the Air Force Academy. After graduating from the academy, he was sent to the front.

In 1941-1942 G.N. Flerov addressed letters to I.V. Kurchatov, S.V. Kaftanov and I.V. Stalin, in which he called on the government and scientists to resume work on the uranium problem and the creation of an atomic bomb, interrupted by the war.

In 1943 G.N. Flerov was recalled from the front and included in a group of scientists involved in the creation of Soviet nuclear weapons.

In 1943-1960. G.N. Flerov worked at Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences (I.V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy).

G.N. Flerov determined the cross section for the interaction of slow neutrons with various materials, the critical masses of uranium-235 and plutonium.

In 1949 G.N. Flerov participated in testing the first atomic bomb in the USSR.

In the early 1950s. G.N. Flerov began to develop a new direction in nuclear physics - the synthesis of superheavy elements of the periodic table and achieved outstanding results in this area. Under his leadership, experiments on the synthesis of elements from 102 to 107 were successfully carried out, new physical phenomena were discovered: accelerated spontaneous fission of isomer nuclei, delayed nuclear fission, decay of nuclei with the emission of delayed protons, a new class of nuclear reactions - elastic-inelastic nucleon transfer reactions, discovered relatively high stability with respect to spontaneous fission of extremely heavy nuclei with atomic number greater than 104.

In 1960-1990 G.N. Flerov is the director of the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions (NLNR) of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR, Dubna). Currently, FLNR JINR is named after G.N. Flerov.

G.N. Flerov paid a lot of attention to the practical application of the achievements of nuclear physics, was one of the initiators of the development of nuclear physical methods for oil exploration and rational development of oil fields, he proposed and developed an original pulsed method of neutron and gamma-ray logging of oil reservoirs.

In 1953 he was elected a corresponding member, and in 1968 - a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. G.N. Flerov was a member of the Commission on Nuclear Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the Scientific Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences on Radiochemistry and the Scientific Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences on the physics of the atomic nucleus.

He was a member of the editorial board of the journal “Physics of Elementary Particles and the Atomic Nucleus”.

In 1987 he was awarded the Gold Medal. DI. Mendeleev Academy of Sciences of the USSR for a series of works on the synthesis and study of the properties of new transactinide elements of the table D.I. Mendeleev, in 1989 – Gold Medal named after. I.V. Kurchatov for a series of works on the synthesis and study of the stability of the heaviest elements using intense ion beams.

G.N. Flerov was an honorary member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and a member of the German Academy of Naturalists "Leopoldina" (German Democratic Republic).