{{Short description|Research institute based in Sarov, Russia}} {{Infobox company | name = All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics | logo = All-Russian_Scientific_Research_Institute_of_Experimental_Physics_logo.png | type = [[Federal State Unitary Enterprise]] | industry = | fate = | predecessor = <!-- or: | predecessors = --> | successor = <!-- or: | successors = --> | founded = 1947 | founder = <!-- or: | founders = --> | defunct = <!-- {{End date|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | hq_location_city = [[Sarov]] | hq_location_country = Russia | area_served = <!-- or: | areas_served = --> | key_people = | products = | owner = <!-- or: | owners = --> | num_employees = 20,000<ref>{{cite web |url=https://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/72220 |website=President of Russia |access-date=2025-08-23}}</ref> | num_employees_year = 2023 | parent = [[Rosatom]] | website = {{URL|www.vniief.ru}} }} The '''All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics''' ('''VNIIEF'''; {{langx|ru|Всероссийский научно-исследовательский институт экспериментальной физики}}) is a research institute based in [[Sarov]] (formerly Arzamas-16), Russia and established in 1947. During the Soviet era, it was known as '''KB-11''' and '''All-Soviet''' ('''All-Union''') '''Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics''' (also abbreviated '''VNIIEF''') ({{langx|ru|Всесоюзный научно-исследовательский институт экспериментальной физики}}, ВНИИЭФ). It is currently part of the [[Rosatom]] group.
The All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics is the former Soviet Union's premier research and development center for nuclear weapons. The first Soviet atomic bomb was developed here in the late 1940s, after which the center continued as a center for nuclear weapons research.<ref name="rdbd95"/>
Many of the Soviet Union's best physicists were associated with Arzamas-16: Academician [[Andrey D. Sakharov]] worked here for nearly 20 years, and Academician [[Yuliy B. Khariton]] still served as the Center's scientific head in the 1990s.<ref name="rdbd95">{{cite web|title=Russian Defense Business Directory|url=https://fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/industry/docs/rus95/n_list.htm|website=Federation of American Scientists|publisher=US Department of Commerce Bureau of Export Administration|access-date=21 July 2017|date=May 1995}} {{PD-notice}}</ref>
Before being given its current name, the facility was successively known as the '''Volga Office''', '''KB-11''', '''Object No. 550''' ('''Site 550'''), "'''Kremlev'''" ('''Kremlyev'''), "'''Center 300, Moscow'''", '''Arzamas-75''' and '''Arzamas-16'''.<ref name="kruglov02">{{cite book|last1=Kruglov|first1=Arkadii|title=The History of the Soviet Atomic Industry|date=2002|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=9780415269704|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oSriY07qvdIC&pg=PA10|language=en}}</ref> Other initial provisional names included '''Base 112''' and '''Yasnogorsk'''.<ref>{{cite web|last=Sarovlabs|title=Creation of nuclear center Arzamas-16|url=http://www.sarovlabs.com/history_sarov_nc/|access-date=2020-11-28|archive-date=2021-08-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806205222/http://www.sarovlabs.com/history_sarov_nc/|url-status=dead}}</ref> The researchers working there have sometimes referred to the place as "'''Los Arzamas'''" (after the American nuclear research facility [[Los Alamos, New Mexico|Los Alamos]]).
As of August 2019, the Research Institute of Experimental Physics was a very large research complex with these institutes: Theoretical and mathematical physics ({{langx|ru|теоретической и математической физики}}), Gas dynamics and explosion physics ({{langx|ru|Газодинамики и физики взрыва}}), Nuclear and radiation physics ({{langx|ru|Ядерной и радиационной физики}}), Laser physical research ({{langx|ru|Лазерно-физических исследований}}), and the Scientific and Technical Complex ({{langx|ru|Научно-технический комплекс}}) also known as the KB ({{langx|ru|КБ}}), which consists of KB-1 (nuclear charges) ({{langx|ru|КБ-1 (ядерные заряды)}}), KB-2 (nuclear munitions) ({{langx|ru|КБ-2 (ядерные боеприпасы)}}), KB-3 (special security) ({{langx|ru|КБ-3 (специальная безопасность)}}), and KB-12 (special topics) ({{langx|ru|КБ-12 (специальная тематика)}}).<ref name=MoscowPost20190814>{{cite news |url=http://www.moscow-post.su/politics/koe_kakery_iz_rosatoma30332/ |title="Кое-какеры" из Росатома |trans-title="Something" from Rosatom |last=Попова |first=Надежда (Popova, Nadezhda) |work=Moscow Post |date=14 August 2019 |access-date=9 December 2019 |archive-date=21 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190821160613/http://www.moscow-post.su/politics/koe_kakery_iz_rosatoma30332/ |language=ru}}</ref>
== History == On February 11, 1943, a resolution was adopted by the [[State Defense Committee]] to begin work on the creation of an atomic bomb. The general leadership was entrusted to the Deputy Chairman of the State Defense Committee [[Lavrentiy Beria]],<ref>{{Cite journal |author = Larin, I. |url= http://www.nkj.ru/archive/articles/11381/ |title= The F-1 reactor was and remains the first |type= magazine |edition= Science & Life |year= 2007 |number= 8}}</ref> who, in turn, appointed the head of the atomic project [[Igor Kurchatov]] (his appointment was signed on March 10). The information received through intelligence channels facilitated and accelerated the work of Soviet scientists.
Beginning at the end of 1945, a search began for a location for a secret facility, which would later be named KB-11. According to the memoirs of the academician [[Yulii Khariton]], the place for the future institute was researched carefully: it had to be located at a distance from the cities, since it was required to test various explosive structures so that active plutonium could be compressed and when combined, would exceed [[critical mass]]. Having reviewed many locations, physicists came across a completely satisfying place in the former [[Sarov Monastery]] (a famous saint that lived in the monastery, the [[Seraphim of Sarov|Saint Seraphim of Sarov]], later became a patron saint of Russia's nuclear weapons) not far from [[Arzamas]] (hence the names Arzamas-75 and Arzamas-16), on the border with the [[Mordovia|Mordovian reserve]]. On the territory of the monastery, there was plant number 550 (hence the names Site 550 etc.), which produced mortar shells, guns, rockets for [[Katyusha rocket launcher|BM-13 "Katyusha"]] rocket launchers, and other types of weapons. Behind the wall of the monastery there was a protected forest (the nature reserve is still very near to the [[Sarov]] closed city) for hundreds of square kilometers, where test explosions could be carried out unnoticed.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.sib-science.info/ru/news/vodorodnuyu-bombu-07112017|title=Yulii Khariton: we made a hydrogen bomb before the Americans|author=Soifer, Valery Nikolaevich|website=Siberian Science News|date=2017-11-08|publisher=Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences}}</ref> [[Boris Vannikov]] commissioned a survey of the plant and on April 1, 1946 [[Sarov]] was chosen as the location of the first Soviet “nuclear center,” later famously known as “Arzamas-16.”
On April 9, 1946, a resolution was adopted by the [[Council of Ministers of the USSR]]- No. 805-327ss on the creation of KB-11 at [[Kurchatov Institute|Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences]] (Kurchatov Institute).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rbc.ru/society/01/12/2011/5703ef9d9a79477633d3a9e5|title=60 years since the start of mass production of nuclear weapons |date=2011-12-01|website=RBK|access-date=2019-02-02}}</ref> {{ill|Pavel Mikhailovich Zernov|ru|Зернов, Павел Михайлович}} was appointed Head of KB-11 at the suggestion of Yu.B. Khariton, and the chief designer was [[Yulii Khariton]].<ref name=":0" />
Construction of KB-11 on the plant No. 550 base in the village of Sarov was entrusted to Glavpromstroy by the [[NKVD|People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR]]. To carry out all the construction work, a special construction organization was created - Construction Department No. 880 of the NKVD of the USSR. Since April 1946, the entire personnel of the plant No. 550 were enlisted as workers and employees of the Construction Department No. 880. In addition to civilian workers, the main contingent consisted of prisoners. On 07/01/1947, the number of prisoners in the labor camp at SU-880 was 10,098, of which 9044 were men and 1,054 were women.<ref>[https://sarov.info/data/BadBlock/files/2018/7%20%D0%90.%D0%95.%20%D0%9A%D0%BB%D1%8E%D1%88%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0%20%D0%A1%D0%BE%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BD%D0%BE-%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%84%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9%20%D1%81%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%B2%20%D0%B7%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BB%D1%8E%D1%87%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8B%D1%85%20%D0%98%D0%A2%D0%9B%20%D0%91%D0%93%20%D0%A1%D0%A3-(880)%20585.pdf A. E. Klyushina. Socio-demographic composition of prisoners in the ITL (labor camp) "BG" SU-880]</ref>
In February 1947, by the decree of the [[Council of Ministers of the USSR]] KB-11 was classified as a highly restricted enterprise and was transformed from a territory into a closed restricted zone. The settlement of Sarov was removed from the administrative structure of the [[Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic]] and excluded from all records. Research laboratories and design departments of KB-11 began to develop their activities directly in Sarov in the spring of 1947. At the same time, the first production shops of experimental plants No. 1 and No. 2 were created.
On March 3, 1949, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted decree No. 863-327ss/op on the construction of the USSR's first plant for the industrial production of atomic bombs as part of KB-11 in 1949-1950.
On June 6, 1950, KB-11 was transferred from the Laboratory of Measuring Instruments of the USSR Academy of Sciences to the direct jurisdiction of The First Main Directorate under the USSR Council of Ministers,<ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=1QpVxQEACAAJ | title = Geroi atomnogo proekta |date = 2005 |publisher= Sarov | isbn = 978-5-9515-0005-2}}</ref> on the basis of which, in turn, on July 1, 1953, the [[Ministry of Medium Machine Building]] was formed.
By the end of 1951, the experimental mass production plant No. 551, which came into operation in the second half of 1951 (plant No. 3 KB-11), produced 29 atomic bombs [[RDS-1]]. The storage of atomic bombs was also carried out on the territory of KB-11 in a specially erected underground reinforced concrete storage warehouse.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.proatom.ru/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2352|title=PRoAtom - The creation of the nuclear shield of the Fatherland|publisher=www.proatom.ru|access-date=2020-01-04}}</ref>
In 1967, KB-11 was transformed into the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics, which became part of the structure of the USSR Ministry of Medium Machine Building.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://tass.ru/info/1453183|title=Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics. Dossier|publisher=TASS|access-date=2020-01-04}}</ref>
Since February 1992, it is called the - '''Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics''' ('''RFNC-VNIIEF'''). It is a federal state unitary enterprise of the nuclear weapons complex of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom (SC Rosatom).
== Supercomputer == On March 9, 2011, a supercomputer was officially put into operation at RFNC-VNIIEF - the most powerful [[supercomputer]] at that time in Russia.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cnews.ru/news/top/index.shtml?2011/03/09/431116 |title=The most powerful supercomputer in Russia was launched |author=Natalia Lavrentieva |date=2011-03-09 |website=CNews |access-date=2019-02-02 |language=ru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110310154853/http://www.cnews.ru/news/top/index.shtml?2011%2F03%2F09%2F431116 |archive-date=2011-03-10 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cnews.ru/news/top/index.shtml?2011/03/29/434057|title=The most powerful supercomputer in Russia was not included in the Top 50 CIS|author=Natalia Lavrentieva|date=2011-03-09|website=CNews|access-date=2019-02-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140822025917/http://www.cnews.ru/news/top/index.shtml?2011%2F03%2F29%2F434057|archive-date=2014-08-22}}</ref>
On 9 February 2018, [[Interfax]] reported that several employees of the All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC-VNIIEF) were detained because they had used the power of the greater than 1 petaflops supercomputer to mine [[cryptocurrencies]] on 8 February 2018.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.interfax.ru/russia/599218 |title=Сотрудников Российского ядерного центра в Сарове поймали на майнинге криптовалют |trans-title=Employees of the Russian Nuclear Center in Sarov were caught mining cryptocurrencies |language=ru |work=[[Interfax]] |date=2018-02-09 |access-date=2024-03-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180727222850/http://www.interfax.ru/russia/599218 |archive-date=2018-07-27}}</ref>
By 2018-2020, it was planned to increase the capacity of the supercomputer to 1 [[exaflops|exaflop]].<ref name=sarov>{{cite web|date=2012|url=http://www.ria.ru/science/20120223/572919407.html|title=Supercomputer power in Sarov may reach maximum by 2020|publisher=[[RIA Novosti]]|access-date=2012-02-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224124617/http://ria.ru/science/20120223/572919407.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-02-24}}</ref>
== Nyonoksa radiation accident on 8 August 2019 and the deaths of five employees of RFNC-VNIIEF == Among the many research and developments the RFNC-VNIIEF has supported included the development of the "[[Atomic battery|isotope power source]] for a liquid-fuelled rocket engine" which caused a failed test on 8 August 2019 producing the [[Nyonoksa radiation accident]] involving a [[9M730 Burevestnik]] at the [[Nyonoksa]] [[State Central Navy Testing Range|navy test range]] and resulted in the deaths of five employees of RFNC-VNIIEF: Alexey Vyushin, Evgeny Korataev, Vyacheslav Lipshev, Sergey Pichugin and Vladislav Yanovsky, according to a 15 August 2019 ''[[Izvestia]]'' article.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Рамм |first1=Алексей (Ramm, Alexei) |last2=Крецул |first2=Роман (Kretsul, Roman) |last3=Козаченко |first3=Алексей (Kozachenko, Alexey) |last4=Федоров |first4=Андрей (Fedorov, Andrey) |url=https://iz.ru/910285/aleksei-ramm-roman-kretcul-aleksei-kozachenko/reaktivnyi-proryv-pod-severodvinskom-ispytyvalis-iadernye-batareiki |title=Реактивный прорыв: под Северодвинском испытывались «ядерные батарейки»: Взрыв на полигоне Нёнокса произошел при разработке новой двигательной установки |trans-title=Jet breakthrough: "nuclear batteries" were tested near Severodvinsk: The explosion at the Nyonoksa test site occurred during the development of a new propulsion system |language=ru |work=[[Izvestia|Известия]] |date=15 August 2019 |access-date=24 March 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301232803/https://iz.ru/910285/aleksei-ramm-roman-kretcul-aleksei-kozachenko/reaktivnyi-proryv-pod-severodvinskom-ispytyvalis-iadernye-batareiki |archive-date=1 March 2021}}</ref>
== Members == Directors:
* {{ill|Pavel Mikhailovich Zernov|ru|Зернов, Павел Михайлович}} (1946) * Valentin Efimovich Kostyukov (с 2008)
Scientific advisers: * [[Yulii Khariton|Yulii Borisovich Khariton]] (1952—1992) * [[Viktor Mikhaylov (academic)|Viktor Nikitovich Mikhaylov]] (1993—2008) * Vyacheslav Petrovich Soloviev (с 2017)
As of March 2005, about 24 thousand people worked in the Nuclear Center, of which over 44% were women. VNIIEF has 527 candidates of sciences, of whom 36 are women. Of the 102 doctors of sciences, three are women: Galina Vladimirovna Dolgoleva, Vera Vladimirovna Rasskazova, and Lyudmila Valentinovna Fomicheva.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sarov.info/news/ngn/2005/03/16/press-reliz-rfyac-vniief.html|title=RFNC-VNIIEF press release - note - Sarov|publisher=sarov.info|access-date=2020-01-04}}</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Russia|Nuclear technology}}
*[[All-Russian Scientific Research Institute Of Technical Physics]] *[[NL Dukhov All-Russian Research Institute of Automation]] *[[Soviet atomic bomb project]] *[[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] *[[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] *[[Sandia National Laboratories]]
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category}} * [http://www.vniief.ru/ Official website] * [http://book.sarov.ru RFNC-VNIIEF Scientific electronic library] * [http://www.chaskor.ru/p.php?id=3860 Sarov. An amazing journey to a closed city.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918012416/http://www.chaskor.ru/p.php?id=3860 |date=2021-09-18 }} Report in the newspaper «Private Correspondent», published 02.28.2009.
{{Rosatom}} {{Soviet Atomic Bomb Project}} {{coords|format=dms|display=t}} {{authority control}}
[[Category:Nuclear research institutes in Russia]] [[Category:Research institutes in Russia]] [[Category:Companies based in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast]] [[Category:Rosatom]] [[Category:Federal State Unitary Enterprises of Russia]] [[Category:1947 establishments in the Soviet Union]] [[Category:Ministry of the Atomic Energy Industry (Soviet Union)]] [[Category:Research institutes in the Soviet Union]] [[Category:Nuclear technology in the Soviet Union]] [[Category:Research institutes established in 1947]]