Nikolay Dollezhal | |
|---|---|
Николай Доллежаль | |
 Bust of Dollezhal inOrikhiv | |
| Born | Nikolai Antonovich Dollezhal' 27 October [O.S. 15 October] 1899 |
| Died | 20 November 2000(2000-11-20) (aged 101) Moscow, Russia |
| Citizenship |  Russia |
| Alma mater | Bauman Moscow State Technical University |
| Known for | Soviet atomic bomb project Founder of theRBMK type nuclear reactor |
| Awards |  Merit for the Fatherland Hero of Socialist Labor USSR State Prize Lenin Prize |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Engineering |
| Institutions | Institute of Chemical Physics Moscow State University Sternberg Astronomical Institute |
| Academic advisors | Nikolay Zhukovsky |
Nikolay Antonovich Dollezhal (Russian:Николай Антонович Доллежа́ль; 27 October [O.S. 15 October] 1899 – 20 November 2000[1][2]) was a Russian engineer ofCzech origin whose career was spent in the formerSoviet program of nuclear weapons and later played an influential role in developing thecommercial nuclear power industry of Russia.[3]
Dollezhal was born in Omelnik inEkaterinoslav Governorate of theZaporizhzhia Oblast inUkraine on 27 October 1899.: 22 [4] According to theGlobalSecurity.org investigations, Dollezhal was ofCzech origin—his grandfather, Ferdinand Dollezhal, a Czech, was also an engineer who married a Russian woman in the middle 19th century.[5] In 1917, he attended theBauman Moscow State Technical University (MVTU) where he studied heat engines, thermodynamics, hydrodynamics, electronics,heat exchanger and refrigeration underNikolay Zhukovsky.: 22 [4] In 1923–24, Dollezhal earned hisengineer's degree and worked withMoscow's authorities to rehabilitate the civil engineering and transportation infrastructure.: 22 [4]
While teaching at MVTU, he joinedPJSC Heat and Power (which later was subsumed inNarkomtiazhprom) and worked with Soviet establishment to design new heat engines and turbines under theGOELRO program.: 22 [4] In 1929–30, Dollezhal visited various factories inGermany andAustria under the sponsorship ofSupreme Economic Council.: 22 [4] Upon returning, he soon fell under the espionage investigations by Soviet establishment and was imprisoned until being acquitted in 1932.[5] From 1932 to 1943, Dollezhal worked with Soviet bureaucracy, serving their chief design engineer, and oversaw many of the nitrogen production factories in Russia and Ukraine, and filled positions by hiring graduates of theLeningrad Polytechnic Institute.: 23 [4]
Until 1946, Dollezhal was completely unaware ofSoviet program of nuclear weapons and it wasNikita Khrushchev who had assigned Dollezhal toLaboratory No. 2 to build a plutonium production reactor.: 24 [4] Dollezhal supported the Soviet program and designed the first reactors (based on American designs),graphite moderated types A and AI, that produced plutonium used inJoe 1 nuclear test of 1949 and subsequent nuclear weapons deployment.: 50 [3] After 1950, Dollezhal founded theNIKIET onnuclear marine propulsion. His first proposal, Type AM, was not practical for marine uses but became the core of the firstnuclear power plant in Obninsk, commissioned in 1954. In the same year, he produced a viable draft of alight water submarine reactor.
Dollezhal pioneered the concept of thepressurized water reactor, which led to numerous military andVVER-type civilian designs. In 1957 Dollezhal Institute launched their first dual-use (civilian energy and weapons-grade plutonium) powerplant, Type EI, and seven years later, the first truly industrialBeloyarsk Nuclear Power Station. All subsequent Soviet reactors (VVER,RBMK) also originated from his firm making him personally responsible for signing off the dangerous flaw in the design of the RBMK reactor which ultimately lead to the Chernobyl disaster.
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