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| Established | February 11, 1943 |
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Field of research | |
| Director | Alexander Blagov |
| Address | 1 Kurchatov Square |
| Location | Moscow,Moscow Oblast, Russia |
| Website | kcsni |
TheKurchatov Institute (Russian:Национальный исследовательский центр «Курчатовский Институт»,National Research Centre "Kurchatov Institute") is Russia's leading research and development institution in the field ofnuclear energy. It is named afterIgor Kurchatov and is located at 1Kurchatov Square, Moscow.
In theSoviet Union it was known asI. V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy (Russian:Институт Атомной Энергии им. И.В. Курчатова), abbreviatedKIAE (Russian:КИАЭ). Between 1991 and 2010, it was known as theRussian Scientific Centre "Kurchatov Institute" (Роcсийский научный центр «Курчатовский Институт») before its name was changed toNational Research Centre "Kurchatov Institute".
Until 1955 known under a secret name "Laboratory No. 2 of theUSSR Academy of Sciences", the Kurchatov Institute was founded in 1943 with the initial purpose of developingnuclear weapons. The majority of Soviet nuclear reactors were designed in the institute, including the on-siteF-1, which was the first nuclear reactor outside North America to sustain criticality.
Since 1955, it was also the host for major scientific experimental work in the fields ofthermonuclear fusion andplasma physics. In particular, the firsttokamak systems were developed there, the most successful of them beingT-3 and its larger versionT-4. T-4 was tested in 1968 inNovosibirsk, conducting the first quasistationary thermonuclear fusion reaction ever.[2]
In the 1980s, Kurchatov Institute employees and computer engineers played a very important role in establishing computer culture through participating in the development of theDEMOS operating system. It led to the spread of theinternet in Russia and contributed to thedissolution of the Soviet Union.[3]
Until 1991, the Ministry of Atomic Energy oversaw the Kurchatov Institute's administration. After the transformation into the State Scientific Center in November 1991, the institute became subordinated directly to theRussian government. According to the institute's charter, its director is appointed by the prime minister based on recommendations fromRosatom. In February 2005Mikhail Kovalchuk was appointed director of the institute; since 2015 he has been president of the institute, and the position of a director was occupied by V. Ilgisonis, D. Minkin and (from November 2018) Alexander Blagov. In February 2007, the Kurchatov Institute won the tender to be the main organization coordinating efforts innanotechnology in Russia.
The Kurchatov Institute is also in charge of coordinating Russia's participation in international large-scale projects such as the X-ray laser research facilityEuropean XFEL inHamburg and theFacility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) inDarmstadt, bothGermany, the international fusion reactor projectITER inCadarache and theEuropean Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) inGrenoble (bothFrance) and the particle physics research centerCERN in France andSwitzerland.[4]
Shortly after the start of the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the institute issued a statement which endorsed the invasion, claiming that the neighboring country had been transformed "primarily due to the efforts of our Western partners, into a neo-Nazi bridgehead" and that the invasion was justified because it was aimed at "preventing the threat of a direct attack on our country from its territory."[5]
| Tokamak | Year | Major torusradius(m) | Minor plasmacolumnradius (m) | Toroidal magneticfield(T) | Longitudinal plasmacurrent(MA) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | a | Bt | I | |||
| TMF | 1955 | 0.8 | 0.13 | 1.5 | 0.26 | First tokamak experiment |
| T-1 | 1958 | 0.62 | 0.13 | 1.0 | 0.04 | First tokamak with all-metal chamber and to exceedsafety factor of 1 |
| T-2 | ? | ~0.62 | ~0.13 | ~1.0 | ~0.04 | |
| T-3 | 1960 | 1.0 | 0.06 | 4.0 | 0.06 | |
| T-5 | 1961 | 0.625 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 0.045 | |
| TM-2 | 1962 | 0.4 | 0.08 | 2.2 | 0.02 | |
| TM-3 | 1966 | 0.4 | 0.08 | 2.5 | 0.1 | Firstelectron cyclotron resonance heating experiments; 1972 |
| T-3A | 1967 | 1.0 | 0.15 | 3.8 | 0.14 | First tokamak to produce thermonuclear reactions; 1969 |
| T-6 | 1970 | 0.7 | 0.25 | 1.5 | 0.27 | |
| T-4 | 1971 | 0.9 | 0.16 | 5 | 0.25 | First tokamak to use a carbon limiter |
| TO-1 | 1972 | 0.6 | 0.13 | 1.5 | 0.07 | |
| T-8 | 1973 | 0.28 | 0.05 | 0.9 | 0.024 | First tokamak to use D-shaped chamber |
| T-9 | 1973 | 0.36 | 0.07 | 1.0 | 0.04 | |
| T-11 | 1976 | |||||
| T-10 | 1975 | 1.5 | 0.39 | 4 | 0.6 | |
| TO-2 | 1976 | |||||
| TMG | 1976 | 0.4 | 0.078 | 3.2 | 0.082 | First tokamak with a graphite first wall |
| T-7 | 1979 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 3 | 0.3 | First tokamak with superconducting toroidal magnets |
| T-15 | 1988 | 2.4 | 0.7 | 3.6 | 1 | |
| T-15MD | 2021 | 1.48 | 0.67 | 2.0 | 2.0 | Supports ITER, intended forfission hybrid experiments |
The institute is involved in:
Reactors were designed by researchers of the institute, such as:
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55°48′5″N37°28′37″E / 55.80139°N 37.47694°E /55.80139; 37.47694
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