ATOMIC ENERGY PROGRAM AT SUNGHUL AND SUKHUMI

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A008000200006-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 8
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Sequence Number: 6
• Content Type: REPORT

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CLASSIFICATION
c ENTRAL INT UMENCE AQEWY
COUNTRY
um (Ornsini~i ~ ~ awe)
suwcCT Atef-e :> r Prspl rat *moQ and
Idc ti
DATE OF
IM M
0 ?-! .yw . qew".s
23 September 1cA
e
41 ft *I* ,:*! t 00
M.", i.. IF e!OWN
? ',~ " ' < +.~-? !? z +Mr 25X1
His is t iLU i o- i, '
report read %ngn1 for Sunghul, Voronezh for Voronea`
STATE
ARMY
:oAineic' log3a~c. Ozeri t ri, 1r ssino for i ryasino. 25X1
2. Tlfron bout the report read Praf"s~e lair Tialafeinarr-Rsssovsky for
.
be
Professor !:.
. Tlanof 'sf-Rsacvsk , ~i~1
e- Falashnikoiv for Professor
I aLshnikhov, Professor 5hsvobsnko for Professoe Chsvct ss, Zavemya4n
for Save:gagin, Rersohbam for Kirschbaum, Dr. Karl 9teawl for 3teine1.
Profossee S.A. Voa yesensk.Wfor Professor Vosnessnaki. 1'igWLn for 25X1
''igolin, and Kvartakhava for Kvartahave.
In paragraphs 1 and 2 read Dr. Dpeppsl as Dr. Robert Dsspal, 3tssnburg
as Dr. "as 'tasnDeok, Bern as Tar. Hans Joaohix Horn, V. ratash as Dr.
AlsawAller Cata&, Dr. d '.F ank as Mob Yikhapr'lovich Prank. Dar. Jag
as 3k'. Psl Gwow+d JUK, Pwansr as Penwse, and Ka or as Krueger.
1r.. I:udrkho, and rm*mvw retsrzud to in this report is ps'e b]y T ehatov,
and Pr sfsawr ' :ems! Sol Oy Professor Vaiski.
5. In pa/ !i 2 ss"t -:>?it1 at Sod-1;eavy In&sw u : inistry of
T'adinm ::aeh ns DMI
?
6. Chwitw uW be Dwitm b Is san limey anise Sritra re ?nraritmov,
7. Spssf* aba" :eW Iplaft16
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CLASSIFI
COUNTRY USSR LREPORT NO
TOPIC,
Soviet Atomic er Program at Sunghul and Suk'hum5
EVALUATION
DATE OF CONTENT
DATE OBTAINED,..
REFERENCES
PAGES
REMARKS
LACE OBTAINED
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L_DATE PREPARED 12 August 1955
.ENCLOSURES (NO. & TYPE)
This is UNEVALUATED Information
1.
2.
3.
German experts
Soviet experts
The folloring
Dr. H.Born, Dr. Y.G. limner, Dry of medicine
Katsch, master mechanic Lange (fnu), Dr. R~ Becker
(nephew of Frau Vollmer), an organic a emist from
Sukhumi (name not rememBered), and the team of Dr.
G. Jung including Dr. H. Stuhldreher, Dr. '`:'.
Schmidt, and a man with an undetermined double 25X1
name (presumablr Dr. Schulte-Overberg)
Professor L;7. Timofeyef-Resovs?-i, professor S.A.
Voenesenaki, L'arter (fnu)(phonetic spelling),.
Pevsner (fr#ik)(phonetic spelling)(not to be confused
with Pevsner of Laboratory II), Polanski (fnu),
Anyokhin (fnu)(phonetic spelling).
CLASSIFICATION SECRET
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The present report deals with the following subjects:
The Sunghul Institute (August 1948, and September 1950 - September 1952)
The "cooling-off period" at Sukhumi (September 1952 - March 1955)
Miscellaneous observations.
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personnel was reported:
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s~CA 'T
mom
oil*
The following research
problems were assigned to the institutes
1. Isolation and separation of various fission products.
2. Investigation pf the effects produced by these products
3. Fundamental studies of effects of radiation
4. Development of doeimetric methods
The requested 0.5 g of radium had also arrived..
With the arrival of the "pile soup", positive work was started at the
Sunghul institute. Born occupied himself with separating the different
fission products and specialized on beta emissions. He succeeded in isolating
strontium (Sr), various rare earths such as ruthenium (Ru), cesium (Cs)
and cerium (Cs), as well as radioactive barium in a pure state. Although
it is known that he extracted his methods from pertinent literature, no
details about the procedure fgllowed could be obtained. He worked out a
certain sequence for separating the different metals, precipitating the
metals along with a carrier precipitate. Subsequent decontamination of
the precipitate yielded the metals in the form of pure salts. Born
succeeded in eliminating six pure elements. Born trained Soviet operating
personnel in this work. The salts were handed over to Katsch for his animal
experiments. No details are available. It was. only known that Katech
investigated the distribution of injected substances in the different
parts and organs of the body. Dr. Zimmer further investigated the results
of Born's and Katsohu work. Using Geiger counter, oscillograph and amplifier,
he conducted dosimetric testing of the injection experiments. The
Timofeyef group ran experiments on the effects of pile soup on plant
life. This group had previously workmen the field of genetics and
Timofeyef had reached satisfactory results in stimulating plant growth.
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SECRE'T'
It was a noteworthy fact that favorable results were mostly reached with
low-quality seeds and a tentative rule was establisheds" The better the
seed, the lesser the effects of radiation". The seeds were treated for
the duration of 24 hours with diluted pile soup. Plant growth stimulation
proved effective only with beta emissions, alpha emissions proved
destructive. Strontium as a beta emission source appeared to be the
most dangerous radiation source. It is closely related to calcium and
slnilarly invades the bones to which it adheres with great persistency.
Plutonium (Pu) which was used as an alpha emission source was delivered
in small quantities to Katsoh only. Pa proved highly toxic exceeding
'strontium im:its destructive properties.
Dr. Orthmann's activities at %nghul were restricted to
uminescenee problems, especially to the problem if radium might be
substituted by a waste product from the pile soup. No tangible results
were reached.
Further development projects at the Sunghul institute.
In early 1952, the Soviets made attempts to step up the Sunghul production
of radiactive isotopes to industrial capacity. Born's field of activity
of isolating and separating various fission products was largely to be
expanded. By this time, Born had painstakingly worked out the different
separation methods and trained an adequate number of Soviet operators.
All planning work was exclusively done by Soviets. In the course of 1952,
the whole project was handed over to Professor Vosneseneki.
In September 1952, Riehl was transferred from Sunghu1 to Sukhumi. There
he learned at a later period that considerable changes had taken place
at the Sunghul institute after removal of the Germans in the autumn of
1952. The planned large-scale production plant of radioactive fission
materials had been constructed in the vicinity of the institute and
around them a whole town had cropped up. Biological research was said
to have been discontinued,
Initially only American equipment was used at Dr. Zimmeros department. In
contrast to a Soviet-made amplifier which was said to be of sub-standard
quality, Soviet-made Geiger counters worked satisfactorily. The amplifier
was manufactured in a Pryasino plant, where German television specialists
Dr. Steinel (fnu) and Kirschbaum (fnu) were employed. Soviet professor
C.M..Frank from the Moscow Institute of Radiology is known to be working
the Sunghul institute is to produce radioactive
isotopes for Soviet research and technical requirements. As early as
early 1951, the needs could not be met.
2. The "Cooling Period" at Sukhumi. (September 1952 to ?'arch 1955)
In September 1953, the German experts were transferred from the Sunghul
institute to Sukhumi for "cooling off" purposes. Only Dr. 1Catsch stayed
until the summer of 1953 and was then transferred to Kharkov.
On his trip from Sunghul to Sukhumi, source not Savenyagin in Moscow and
discussed with him what tasks should be assigned to the German exports
during their "cooling off" period. Ile was shown a complete list of
German experts working in the USSR which contained details on the "cooling"
schedule. According to this list, Professor Berta was slated to go to foscow
and to continue there his work on secret problem. Thiescen and his con-in-law
were to continue their secret work in Aogisnk, Vollmer and Ardenne were to
stay at their location and to continue with non-secret matters, Dr. Doeppe2
was to go to Voronesh, Steenberg was to go to Leningrad. Soviet Professor
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Kat'aehnikhov (fnu) (phonetic spelling), a physicist from alloscow
Fhyzics institute, took part in the discussion the purpose of which was
to ` f'ix`subjeots to be posed to the German experts for their "cooling
period'". In an attempt to pose non-secret yet interesting subjects, the
following topics were brought forward:
2. Savenya_.'in suggested research in the field of zirconium (Zr)
3. Professor Kalashnikhov suggested research in the field of germanium
and silicon semi-conductors.
The entire discussion was conducted in a very vague manner and no clear
117igolin (fnu) (phonetic spelling) was
assigned director of the institute. During the "cooling period", the
Agudzeri institute was divided into the following 4 departments including
a total of 10 laboratories:
1. Physics department headed by institute director Migolin
2. Dosimetric department headed by Isayev (fnu) (phonetic spelling)
Isotope separation department headed by Kvartshave (fnu) (phonetic
spelling)
4. Chemical and chemioo-physios department
W ork
was started on a slow pace, no precise program having been established.
Rare earth problems were investigated. While some of the co-workers
took to spectroscopic research, another group pursued the chemical
line under the supervision of Dr. '':firths. The Soviets showed little
if any interest in this work.
After theoretical preparation, Thieme and his coworkers went into zirconium
research. The Soviets were interested in the separation of hafnium (Hf)
from zirconium. Using the ether purification method. in different stages,
satisfac*y results were obtained. While the Soviet demanded a 0.02
percent, a percentage of 0.01 was reached. The work was based on
publications in the American paper "Nucleonics". In the course of time,
it became apparent that Soviet interest in this field was rather limited.
Their interest in the germanium ft silicon sector, on the otter hand,
increased gradually and eventually rare earths and zirconium research was
skipped from the operation plan. The following requirements were stipulated:
1. High-grade purity of the two elements
2. Large regular crystals (monocrystals)
3. Relatively high electric resistivity
4. Long lifetime of the ions
The desirability of these properties had already been pointed out by
Professor Kalashnikov at the above-mentioned discussion with Sevenyagin in
Moscow on occasion of source's transfer from Sunghul to Sukhumi.
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No results had beln obtained with silicon at -the time, the Germans left
for Germany. In.the field of germanium, a 60 ohm resistance and a 200
microseconds lifetime of ions was reached. Allegedly, the Soviet had obtained
the same results. It was learned that the Soviets conducted parallel
experiments with these. two important semi-conductor elements at the Moscow
Institute for Rare 11..etals. This Moscow institute is subordinated to the
lst Chief Directorate of MVD. The name of its director is unknown. A branch
institute has been set up in Odessa.
3.
the Soviets are highly interested
j.4 the germanium - silicon semi-conductor problem within the framework of
remote control research. It may be noteworthy that the Mini try of Semi-Heavy
Industry is greatly interested in germanium - silicon work, although the
Moscow Institute for Rare Metals is subordinated to another ministry.
Miscellaneous Observations.
a. Institutes and laboratories engaged in nuclear research.
Regarding details on institutes of laboratories engaged in atomic energy
research, laboratories Nos 9 and 2 were especially mentioned.. Laboratory
or Institute 9 was also designated NII 9. NII 9 was the search center for
all chemical and metallurgical nuclear problems and, among others, was
engaged in the production of pure uranium metal, U235, and heavy water
(D20), as well as in the separation of plutonium and uranium. Laboratory
2 served research on nuclear problems such as reactors, measuring methods
and measuring technique.
NII 9 was subordinated to the MVD 1st Chief Directorate. Laboratory 2 was
an Academy laboratory serving the MVD let Chief Directorate (The Noginsk
Plant 12 was supervised scientifically by NIX 9),
During the period under observation, Professor Chevchenko (fnu) (phonetic
spelling) was ohief.of NII 9. Laboratory 2 was headed by Professor'
Kuchakhov (fnu) (phonetic spelling). Professor Wolski (fnu) (phonetic
spelling) worked at NII 9 on the reduction of U23 , while Sedemka (fnu)
(phonetic spelling) supervised the designing of plutonium and U235
equipment. Professor Vollmer's team was subordinated to ATIi 9. His task
chiefly consisted of the development of heavy water production. His
coworkers were Dr. engineer Bayerl (fnu) and Dr. Richter (fnu)0It was
learned from Vollmer and Emilyanov that a plant for heavy water production
was built near Kandalaksha north of the Arctic circle. Precise location
of this plant could not be .Teamed. After 1948, the Vollmer team also
took up the problem of Pu U separation.
Professor Doeppel (fnu), Schintlmeister (fnu), Kunz (fnu), and Birkenfeld
(fnu) worked at Laboratory 2. German emigr4 Dr. K. Lange worked under
Soviet scientists. Professor Doeppel was removed from his work as early
as late 1946 and transferred to Osieri because of his independent attitude.
He had worked in the field of gamma radiation on a puftjjr theoretical basis.
The Leningrad Radium Institute also worked on nuclear research. In 1951,
the institute was headed by Professor Starik (fau)(phonetic spelling).
Various methods for extracting Pu from the irradJated uranium pile rods
were developed at the institute.
The Leningrad Radium Institute cooperated closely with the State Planning
Bureau No 11 in Leningrad which is believed to design Pu slants in
cooperation with NII 9.
b. The distribution of missions and traininz of over tore
The atomic energy program was directed by the Technical Council (Technical
Soviet) consisting of some 25 to 28 scientists. This council held its
meetings at the 1AVD 1st Chief Directorate. 25X1
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The Council consists of different sections which are
believed to frame the research missions which are submitted to the plenary
session of the Technical Council. After reading lectures at the sessions,
Germans had to leave the lecture room immediately. Presumably the
Council subsequently discussed the lecture and took pertinent decision.
The missions were submitted to NII 9 and Laboratory 2. The same missions
were submitted b., Savenyagin to the German teams. The Germans were
generally expected to perform quicker and better work.
The following persons were reported as working at the atomic section of
the Technial. Council: Kucharob, Emilyanov, Kokoyen, Charitov, Alikhanov,
Alikhanyan, Asimovich (all fnu) (all names in phonetic spelling). The
Soviet experts are classified into two groups, the "first-class" group
consisted of some 29 scientists, none of them over 55 years of age. The
second?class.group consists of some 100 men of mediocre qualification
who are mostly employed atthe different installations. After 1949,
a great deal of effort was exerted in'training the younger generation
of nuclear physicists by establishing special faculties called Spezfaks.
Special training was given by these Spezfaks at various universities in
the fields of chemistry, physics, and geology . Spezfaks are known to
exist in Leningrad and Kharkov, presumably they have also been established
in Moscow and other universities. They are subordinated to the tTD lst
Chief Directorate. During'the vacation period, the Spezfak students must report
at a special office. in Moscow from which they are transferred for practical
work to special installations subordinated to the NVD 1st Chief Directorate.
c. Procurement of Materials.
According to Antropov (fnu) (phonetic spelling), ade^ua.te deposits
of high-quality uranium ore are available in the USSR. Antropcv is
Minister of Geology and conducted geological ext.lorations in search
for uranium.
2. According to the Soviets, adequate quantities of graphite are available.
quality was said to be superior to USA graphite.
3. After 1949, a general increase in the production of raw materials was
to be noted.
4. After 1949, the manufacture of auxiliary equipment was considerably
expanded.
On occasion of a farewell party offered to the departing Germanslin
.qulchllmi in T'farrh l QgiF
mi yanov ose the following 25X1
1. The technical team Savenyagin - Kun tov J Emnilyanov is preparing ledtures
to be read at the atomic energy congress to be held in Geneva in August
1955- Preparatory meetings held on the highest level were attended by
Molotov who requested them to speak their minds freely. According to
Molotov "the time has come to play with open cards". The Americans are
expected to limit their congress activities to discussions on the peaceful
use of atomic energy, 25X1
Some 45 lectures are being prepared by the Soviets for final
selection. 7!X1
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2d Professor is cooperating with Pontecorvo at the "oscow
"Scientific Institute for Physics Problems". They are
projecting the construction of a betatron.
3. The USSR has offered China an atomic pile and other piles
are to be delivered to other peopieps republics.(It may be
assumed that research piles are involved and not atomic
energy plants). As is the case with Rumania, the Eastern
Bloc countries are, however, underdeveloped and trained
operating personnel as well as auxiliary equipment were
lacking. In knilyanov's opinion, satisfactory standards have
been reached in the GDR and Czechoslovakia and both these
countries will be able to handle piles put at their disposal.,
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