Making The Russian Bomb

Dr. Thomas Cochran is senior staff scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, and director of NRDC's Nuclear Program. He initiated NRDC's Nuclear Weapons Databook Project. He also initiated a series of joint nuclear weapons verification projects with the Soviet Academy of Sciences. These include the Nuclear Test Ban Verification Project, which demonstrated the feasibility of utilizing seismic monitoring to verify a low-threshold test ban, and the Black Sea Experiment, which examined the utility of passive radiation detectors for verifying limits on sea-launched cruise missiles. He has served as a consultant to numerous government and non-government agencies on energy, nuclear nonproliferation, and nuclear reactor matters. He is currently a member of the Department of Energy's Fusion Energy Advisory Board and Environmental Management Advisory Board. Previously he served as a member of DOE's Energy Research Advisory Board, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Advisory Committee on the Clean Up of Three Mile Island and the TMI Public Health Advisory Board. Dr. Cochran is the author of The Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor: An Environmental and Economic Critique (Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 1974); and co-editor/author of the Nuclear Weapons Databook, Volume I: U.S. Nuclear Forces and Capabilities (Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Press, 1984); Volume II: U.S. Nuclear Warhead Production (1987); Volume III: U.S. Nuclear Warhead Facility Profiles (1987); and Volume IV: Soviet Nuclear Weapons (1989). In addition, he has published numerous articles and working papers, including those in SIPRI Yearbook chapters, Arms Control Today, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. He has co-authored (with Dr. Norris) the 302article on "Nuclear Weapons" in the 1990 printing of The New Encyclopedia Britannica (15th edition). Dr. Cochran received his Ph.D. in Physics from Vanderbilt University in 1967. He was assistant professor of Physics at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, from 1969 to 1971, and from 1971 to 1973, he was a Senior Research Associate at Resources for the Future. Dr. Cochran has been with NRDC since 1973. He is the recipient of the American Physical Society's Szilard Award and the Federation of American Scientists' Public Service Award, both in 1987. As a consequence of his work, NRDC received the 1989 Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Robert S. Norris is senior staff analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council and director of the Nuclear Weapons Databook Project. His principal areas of expertise include writing and research in the areas of nuclear weapons research and production, arms control, and nuclear weapons testing. He is co-editor of NRDC's Nuclear Weapons Databookseñes and is a co-author of U.S. Nuclear Warhead Production, Vol. II (1987); U.S. Nuclear Warhead Facility Profiles, Vol. III (1987); Soviet Nuclear Weapons, Vol. IV (1989); and British, French and Chinese Nuclear Weapons, Vol. V (1994). He has co-authored (with Dr. Cochran) the chapter on nuclear weapons in the 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1992 editions of the SIPRI Yearbook. Dr. Norris is an author of six recent NRDC Working Papers. He has written articles for Arms Control Today, and contributes a column for each issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. He has co-authored (with Dr. Cochran) the article on "Nuclear Weapons" in the 1990 printing of The New Encyclopedia Britannica (15th edition). Dr. Norris received his Ph.D. in Political Science from New York University in 1976, and taught at New York University, Miami University in Ohio, Miami University in Luxembourg, and American University. He was a senior research analyst for the Center for Defense Information before coming to the Natural Resources Defense Council in September 1984. Dr. Oleg A. Bukharin is a visiting research fellow at the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies of Princeton University. In 1991 Dr. Bukharin joined the Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (ΜΡTI). From October 1992 to October 1994 he was a SSRC-MacArthur Foundation Fellow. In October 1992 he assumed his current position at Princeton University. Dr. Bukharin continues his collaboration with the Center at ΜΡΉ as well. Dr. Bukharin studies problems involving nuclear power and nuclear proliferation. Dr. Bukharin has been trained as a physicist at the Moscow Institute of 303Physics and Technology. He graduated from ΜΡTI in 1986 and received his Ph.D. in Physics from ΜΡTI in 1992. In 1990-1991 he also studied international security affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs of Princeton University.

Preface -- A Brief History of the Russian Bomb -- An Overview of the Stockpile and Complex -- Chelyabinsk-65/Mayak Chemical Combine -- Tomsk-7 and Krasnoyarsk-26 -- Nuclear Fuel Cycle Activities -- Radioactive Contamination from Nuclear-Powered Vessels -- Profiles of Key Figures in the Soviet/Russian Nuclear Program -- Flerov Letter to Stalin, April 1942 -- Plutonium and Tritium Production Estimates -- Nuclear-Powered Submarines, Surface Ships, and Icebreakers -- The Komsomolets Nuclear-Powered Submarine1 -- Accidents Involving Soviet/Russian Submarines, 1956–19941