Yevgeny Avrorin

Yevgeny Nikolayevich Avrorin (also Evgeniy) Russian: Евгений Николаевич Aврорин (1932 - 9 January 2018) was a theoretical physicist and nuclear engineer, and Scientific Director at the Russian Federal Nuclear Centre (RFNC). He was a co-developer of the RDS-37, the first Soviet two-stage thermonuclear bomb, and many other nuclear devices.

Yevgeny Avrorin in 2014

Life and career

Born in Leningrad, Avrorin graduated from the Physics faculty of Moscow State University and was directed to KB-11 ('Design Bureau-11), now called All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC-VNIIEF)) in the closed city of Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod region. There he worked on the Soviet hydrogen bomb programme. In 1955, he joined the new NII-1011 (Research Institute-1011, presently the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute Of Technical Physics (RFNC-VNIITF)) at another closed city, Snezhinsk (or Chelyabinsk-70). In 1956 and 1957, he performed unique experiments to find out why the RDS-37 exploded fractionally before modelled expectations, a result which implied a lack of knowledge of materials and conditions. During remainder of his career there, he became Head of the Theoretical Physics Department in 1964, the Head of Theoretical Physics Division in 1974 and the Scientific Director in 1985, a role he retained until 2007. From 1996 to 1998, he was also the overall Director.[1][2][3][4]

In addition to his work on many nuclear weapons, he was also known for investigating nuclear charges for civilian usage (e.g. potentially for mining copper), charge designs with very low radiation output and deuterium power engineering. He has written about the modern challenges to the closed cities whose industries are (largely) no longer required since the break-up of the U.S.S.R. He became the chair of the Snezhinsk branch of the Russian Pugwash committee and has been involved in international discussions about science diplomacy and confidence-building for international security.[1][5][6]

He died after a long illness.[4]

Awards

References
  1. Gubarev, Vladimir (2015). "The Mysterious World of Explosions" (PDF). V Mire Nauki.
  2. Goncharov, G.A. (1996). "American and Soviet H-bomb development programmes: historical background" (PDF). Physics-Uspekhi. 39 (10): 1033–1044. doi:10.1070/pu1996v039n10abeh000174. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
  3. "Top Russian nuclear weapons designer Avrorin dies". apnews.com. 9 January 2018. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  4. "Russian theoretical physicist Yevgeny Avrorin passes away at 85". tass.com. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  5. "Reykjavik to New START: Science Diplomacy for Nuclear Security in the 21st Century". nationalacademies.org. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  6. Reppy, Judith, ed. (1998). Conversion of Military R & D: Conversion Problems of Russian Nuclear Weapons Centers. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
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