Second Russian National Dialogue On Energy, Society And Security

Second Russian National Dialogue on ENERGY, SOCIETY AND SECURITYI. Akchurin, Professor S. Pertsev, ed. Moscow: Golden Bee, 2007. 258: ill.The introduction of the book includes a note from V. Verkhovtsev, the Head ofthe 12 th Government Department of the Russian Defense Ministry: “At the price of theincredible efforts of the test range staff, military construction workers and designers,the test range was built and ready to conduct tests in an extremely short period of time.Later, a one-of-a-kind research testing base was created here, allowing us to conductfull-scale nuclear tests and model the destructive effects of a nuclear explosion and itsconsequences on military equipment and both military and civil facilities.Everything that was done at the Semipalatinsk test range to create the country’snuclear shield was done for the first time ever. This is where the first Russian-madenuclear device was tested, where the model of a real nuclear air-delivered bomb wasfirst dropped, where thermonuclear charges were first tested, where the prototype forthe thermonuclear munitions that comprised the foundation of the Armed Forces nucleararsenal was first tested, and where underground nuclear explosions were first carried out[Note from the author: and, we should add, the first peaceful nuclear explosion used tocreate a massive water reservoir].In 1994, the Second State Central Test Range under the Russian Defense Ministrywas complete. This achievement remains an honored memory not only for test rangeveterans, but for new generations as well.”The works listed above are also complemented by:- Underground Burial of Industrial Waste via Enlarged Cavities Made UsingUnderground Nuclear Explosions. Authors: N. Prikhodko, A. Vasiliev. A. Agapova, ed.Moscow: IzdAT, 2007. 104.This book is about the development and introduction of the technology used for theunderground burial of toxic industrial waste water using peaceful nuclear explosions,such as the Kama-2 facilities (10/26/1983, 10 kilotons, a depth of 2,206 m, put into usein 1967), and Kama-1 (07/08/1974, 10 kilotons at a depth of 2,123, put into use in 1983)in Bashkortostan. Over 29 years of operation, the Kama-2 cavity (as of 01/01/07) storednearly 34.5 m 3 of highly-mineralized industrial waste water from the SterlitamakskSoda Industrial Association. Over 23 years of use, Kama-1 has stored 3.42 million m 3of particularly toxic industrial waste water from Salavatnefteorgsintez. Overall, thesesystems have made it possible to prevent dumping industrial waste into surface waterreservoirs and thus prevent RUB 6.5 million in damage to the environment.- The Nuclear Shield, by A. Greshilov, N. Egupov, and M. Matushchenko. Moscow:Logos, 2008. 424: ill. Based on a number of sources, including newly declassifiedsources, this book presents the true history of nuclear weapons development and the birthof nuclear industry in the Soviet Union. The scientific and technological requirementsfor carrying out the first nuclear project are revealed, and the work also reflects thepolitical climate of the time that developed under the influence of the Cold War andthe growing threat that a thermonuclear attack could be unleashed against Russia. Thisbook also addresses the development of the H-bomb and second- and third-generationthermonuclear devices. It includes information about the USSR’s test ranges, the maintypes of nuclear weapons, the tests conducted with them, and the nuclear explosionsconducted for peaceful purposes. A detailed bibliography on the book’s subject is alsoincluded (335 sources, and all from the ever-growing personal “nuclear library” of coauthorProfessor A. Matushchenko as of July 25, 2007).433