Uranium dungeons. Part 1
Author – Boris Alester
Let's remember some numbers - they will be needed to better understand the importance of uranium ore for a nuclear project.
How much ore is required to obtain Low Enriched Uranium ( NOU), as fuel for nuclear power plants? It is generally accepted that fuel uranium– this is uranium, the content of the isotope uranium-235 in which is brought to 4% . In natural ore this isotope contains only 0,7% , that is, it is necessary to increase its concentration in 6 once.
Uranium dungeons. Part 2
Author – Boris Alester
I thought for a long time about how to start the review. Traditionally, they use either a geographical principle, “sorting through” continents and countries, or a geological one – based on types of ore, associated minerals, and percentage content. But uranium, the celestial metal, is an amazing chemical element: it has largely shaped and is shaping our reality. So let's see how its production developed, based on the events historical.
Uranus “came” to the big world loudly and scaryly - with explosions that burned hundreds of thousands of human lives in two Japanese cities. In order for “Fat Man” and “Kid” to do their dirty deed, the famous Manhattan Project was implemented in America throughout the years of World War II through the efforts of scientists from a dozen countries and the American government.
Let's try to answer another “childish” question: where did they get the uranium for this project?
It would seem, what does racial theory have to do with it?.. In the infinitely distant year of 1865, a new monarch, Leopold II, ascended the throne of Belgium. The glorious king decided that Belgium simply had to become one of the decent European powers - that is, have its own colony. We all have it, we need to catch up. In 1884-1885, a conference of European powers was held in Berlin to resolve the issue of colonies in Central Africa. Without any war, due to the intricacies of incredible intrigues, Leopold II managed... buy personal ownership of an area of 2.3 million square meters. km on the southern bank of the Congo River - 76 areas of Belgium itself.
In the same year 1885, a “state” was founded, which was called the Free State. Congo. Leopold transferred his private property to his own kingdom, and the colony, as it should be, was ruled by a governor-general. Who wants the terrible details of this reign - with the cutting off of hands, with hostages, mass executions - study at your leisure. I will limit myself to general figures: the population of the Congo by 1920 was half of the population of 1885. The numbers of those destroyed vary - who took them into account... Either three million, or ten million. The European press of those years never tired of admiring such a rapid spread Christian values.
Let's return to uranium. In one of the provinces of the Belgian Congo - Katanga - many deposits of a wide variety of metals were discovered. Copper, tin, cobalt and - that same heavenly metal. However, there is one technical point: at first, the development of uranium ores was not for the sake of uranium, but for the sake of radium(sorry about the butter oil, of course). Let's briefly remember what this element is.
In 1896, Becquerel discovered uranium rays, and the following year Pierre Curie and his wife, Maria Sklodowska-Curie, began work on the study of uranium. Surnames that have remained with us forever: Bq (becquerel) is a unit of measurement of the activity of a radioactive source in the International System of Units, Ci (curie) is a unit of measurement of the activity of a radioactive source, but non-systemic. Becquerel spoke about his discovery of “rays” emanating from uranium ore; the Curies were the first to propose calling the radiating properties of the atoms of certain elements with the word “radioactivity” that is so familiar to us.
During their studies of various samples of uranium ores, the Curies discovered that some of them had greater radioactivity than uranium itself could produce. This means that in these samples, in addition to uranium, there was another element that gave this additional radioactivity. On December 26, 1898, Maria and Pierre were able to isolate this element using chemical methods and, by right of discoverers, gave it a name "radium"- “radiant, radiant.”
Ra is the designation for this element, which is indeed much more radioactive than uranium. The half-life is 1600 years, in nature it is not only rare, it Very rare Having begun work on obtaining pure radium at the end of 1898, by 1902 the Curies were able to produce 0.1 gram radium, for which they had to process a ton of uranium ore. A ton and 0.1 grams was an excellent job, since in nature there is on average 1 atom of radium for every 3 million atoms of uranium-238.
Radium is a fragment of the radioactive fission of uranium-238, the half-life of the latter is 4.5 billion years. Uranium-238 decays, frankly speaking, slowly - that’s why radium reserves are so insignificant. Since the article is not about radium, I will not describe the meaning and application of this element for physics, chemistry, medicine - those who wish can search for information on their own.
All the beneficial properties of radium were not so important for the owners of the Belgian Congo: they were increasingly simple and pragmatic people. In 1906, the price of 1 gram of radium reached its maximum value of $175,000. For 1 gram. The dollars of that time. Let's look at the price of gold for clarity. In 1906, a troy ounce (31.103 grams) cost $20.67. 66 cents per 1 gram of gold. And – $175,000 per 1 gram of radium. Roughly - 1 gram of radium at maximum it cost the same as 265 kg gold. This is the ratio.
Let's put it mildly: the Belgians were very interested in the intensive development of uranium deposits, but they did not care about uranium itself from a high bell tower. Nobody made nuclear loaves, there were no nuclear power plants, and here 1 gram of radium costs 265 kg of gold... European classics: barbed wire around mines, contracts for 9 years (people couldn’t stand it any longer, dying or becoming disabled from radiation sickness), manual labor. For two years of continuous service (that is, if health was enough for these two years) bonus: 2 chickens and 1 goat...
Katanga province, Shinkolobwe mine, was discovered by Colonel Sharp in 1914, and began to be developed in 1921. The mine is located at an altitude of 1400 meters above sea level, the depths of the mines reached 400 meters. They usually scare us with Magadan - then in Shinkolobva, it turns out, there was just a sanatorium. 40 degrees in the shade all year round, mines with a minimum of equipment and no ventilation, pickaxes, trolleys by hand... The ore, which contained up to 65% uranium oxide, killed the miners, but few people were interested in it, and therefore simply dumped in huge dumps. It was Shinkolobwe that for some time became the African Eldorado: by 1940, almost a kilogram of radium was mined here...
But the price for it gradually began to fall - this probably prompted the Union Minière du Haut-Katanga company to think about what to do with the uranium. Uranium began to be used as... paint for porcelain, it was used to make glass with different colors, and it was alloyed with iron instead of the scarce tungsten. In general, we had as much fun as we could. By God, it would be better if the uranium continued to lie near that Shinkolobwe as a monument to the hundreds of thousands of black workers who died while mining it.
And so it began to be exported to Belgium, which did people a disservice: during the occupation of the country, Hitler’s nuclear scientists received 1,200 tons of uranium ore at their disposal, which spurred work on creating an atomic bomb in the notorious Third Reich. But Shinkolobwe also became the basis of the Manhattan Project - after all, Hitler did not reach Central Africa.
In May 1939, the manager of Union Minière Edgar Sengier was on business in England, where they arranged a meeting with Joliot-Curie himself, who was able to explain to the industrialist the potential of uranium and what kind of weapon it could become in the hands of Hitler. In October 1939, Sengier arrived in New York, from where he ordered the removal of all uranium ore from the Oolen enrichment plant to England. Unfortunately, they simply did not have time to carry out the order - in May 1940, Belgium was occupied by the Germans, and the ore passed into their hands.
Fearing a Nazi invasion of the Congo, Sengier ordered all Shinkolobwe ore dumps to be transported to the United States, which was successfully carried out at the end of the same 1940. It is interesting that in terms of uranium reserves, Germany and the United States started from exactly the same positions: the Germans got 1,250 tons of Congolese ore in Belgium, and exactly the same amount Edgar Sengier delivered from the Belgian Congo to the United States.
Participants in the Manhattan Project had previously only dealt with Canadian uranium ore, so when they first encountered ore from the Congo, they were sure that all their equipment had suddenly failed: the ore provided by Union Minier contained up to 65% uranium oxide. To date, this figure is the highest in the entire history of uranium geology.
Here's an amazing story: African uranium not only accelerated the work of German physicists on the Bomb, but also made the Manhattan Project possible. “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” are almost 100% “African” in origin.
The Reich did not go to Africa, therefore, after a short break, work at Shinkolobwe was resumed - but now not for the sake of radium, but for the extraction of uranium. But the richest ore, with an incredible 65% uranium oxide, by that time it turned out that it had simply run out. As geologists say in such cases, “development was carried out using a selective method”: in pursuit of radium, the Belgians were interested only in those areas in the mines where the content of uranium oxide was maximum.
Sengier, having handed over (of course, read as “sold”) to the Americans everything that was collected in the dumps, tried to continue developing the mines, but the freebie was over. From 1943 to 1950, ore with a uranium oxide content of 13% was used, from 1950 to 1952 there was already 3-4% uranium, and from 1952 to 1960 - 0.35%. Where did the last milestone come from - 1960?
I am sure that none of the residents of the country in which there is a university named after Patrice Lumumba will ask such a question at all, right? - in general, they did everything possible to ensure that Zaire was left without its own uranium.
Mining in Zaire really stopped, but the “biography” of Zaire itself turned out to be very complicated. There was no uranium in Zaire, but there was some in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They're just getting it black(in every sense of the word) diggers and sell it as best they can on the black market. From time to time information breaks through, but sparingly and fragmentarily. For those interested, here is a more or less complete recent selection.
For official geology and the IAEA, Congolese uranium no longer exists; for memory, it left us with the failed Nazi atomic project and the successful Manhattan Project, the basis of which was the unique Shinkolobwe mine.
Here, in fact, is a brief history of the richest uranium deposits in our history. A white man in a pith helmet found it, forced him to get the most delicious pieces for himself and went home...
Uranium dungeons. Part 3
Author – Boris Alester
In the photo: In 1954, First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Vyacheslav Molotov visited Object No. 1 of the SGAO "Bismuth" in Johanngeorgenstadt (GDR)
Actually, the name “CMEA” suggests itself, but times have gone such that not everyone remembers this abbreviation...
Germany
Hitler's atomic bomb project was based on Congolese uranium, but there was something of its own. Well, as “our own” - Czech, Polish... In Germany itself, a very small amount of uranium ore was mined in 1933-1934 near Nabburg, in Bavaria, but in those mines fluorspar was mined, uranium was just a small addition. Well, no and no - the Germans had enough of what was obtained in different ways in the occupied territories.
After May 9, 1945, the Americans, already on the spot in Germany, were convinced that yes, the Germans were working on the Bomb, but they did not have time to complete anything. This, of course, did not stop us from trying to get our hands on everything that was in bad shape. They looked for scientists, looked for developments, drawings, equipment and - uranium. Well, as they were looking for - to clear their conscience, of course. If the Germans were engaged in the Bomb, with their precision, they probably combed their own territory inside and out.
The demarcation line of the Yalta Conference left Thuringia and Saxony in the Soviet zone of occupation, but during the fighting this territory came under American troops, and the United States did not fail to double-check all the mines known by that time, where uranium tar had previously been noticed. Specialists from the Alsos group double-checked, assessed and calmly left. "You can pick 15 tons ore, and even then very poor” - this was the verdict. If anyone is interested in the details of the work of the Alsos group, look for the name of its leader, Boris Pasha(Pashkovsky). A former White Guard whose name is immortalized in the US Military Intelligence Hall of Fame...
Could German and American geologists be considered real “uranium professionals”? Why not - nuclear projects were developed here and there on Congolese ore. And Lavrenty Palych played trump cards: he remembered too well who instructed him to create the Bomb and understood what would happen if he did not complete this task.
Following the departing American troops, she arrived in the Ore Mountains - just a few days later! - our geological exploration party led by Semyon Petrovich Alexandrov himself. This man was only 23 years old when in 1914 he led the geological exploration of the radium expedition in Fergana, and a little later he worked as a collector in the survey of the Tyuya-Muyun radium deposit.
In 1922 Alexandrov was finally able to finish his studies at the Mining Institute (due to financial difficulties in the family, Semyon Petrovich was forced to work much more than study) and receive the proud title of mining engineer. The next three years - again Tuya-Muyun, where now he was already the head of geological expeditions searching for the same radium. But I’ve already told you what radium is, so let’s fix it: by the time of his arrival in the Ore Mountains, Semyon Petrovich had been searching for and finding uranium for almost 30 years. At the same time, he still managed to teach, edit the Mining and Processing Journal, improve his qualifications in the States, and organize the work of two research institutes at once. Amazingly energetic time, amazing people!
And since 1938 - Kolyma. No, not what the handshake public likes to talk about: Alexandrov was appointed deputy chairman of the NKVD expeditionary commission for Kolyma. Again - the search for uranium, but now also the organization of the work of mining and metallurgical enterprises. Semyon Petrovich Alexandrov is another person about whom books should be written.
I repeat: Lavrenty Palych came in with trump cards. Anatoly Georgievich himself also arrived in the Ore Mountains as part of a geological exploration party. Betekhtin- future author of the classics “Mineralogy” and “Course of Mineralogy”, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences and so on, so on, so on. The best specialist in the diagnostics of ore materials in the country.
I did not find data on how many people worked in this Saxon ore-prospecting geological party, but these people had less than six months to conduct an audit everyone mines developed for silver, bismuth, nickel and other metals: Annaberg, Gottesberg, Breitenbrun, Johanngeorgenstadt, Marienberg, Niederschlag, Freiberg, Oberschlem, Schneeberg... The conclusions of Alexandrov and Betekhtin were clear: the reserves of uranium ore in the region are no less 150 tons.
Is it a lot or a little? For “now” - seeds, but at the end of 1945 it was more than all the explored reserves throughout the entire territory of the USSR. Beria had no reason to doubt the report of Alexandrov and Betekhtin: the Saxon ore-prospecting party in the spring of 1946 became subordinate to the First Main Directorate under the USSR Council of Ministers. In the summer of 1946, the search party was reorganized into the Saxon Mining Directorate, and in September it was headed by Mikhail Mitrofanovich Maltsev. This man had never dealt with uranium until that moment, but Beria again was not mistaken with his candidacy even by a millimeter.
Mikhail Maltsev in 1918, at the age of 14, volunteered for the Red Army, managed to fight with Denikin, Wrangel, and became an officer, but in 1922 he left military service. An 18-year-old war veteran, he goes to work... electrician. But the pace of life dictated its conditions: Maltsev participated in the construction of the Dnieper hydroelectric power station, where the bosses noticed his talent as an engineer. In 1935, Maltsev graduated from the Novocherkassk Industrial Institute, after which he was transferred to the Volgostroy NKVD.
Before the war, Maltsev was already the head of the construction of a waterworks complex in Kaluga, a position that included “reservation”, but in October 1941, after retraining courses, he was already at the front. He commanded the 10th Engineer Army (!) and received the rank of engineer-colonel. But in March 1943 he was recalled from the front to entrust the construction of the Kotlas-Vorkuta railway to build coal mines of the Vorkutaugol management.
Yes, yes - again the NKVD, in 1945 he received the title of State Security Commissioner. And in 1946 - Germany, and the mines were no longer coal, but uranium. Military man, electrician, engineer, sapper commander, head of coal mines, NKVD commissar - Mikhail Maltsev coped with any job. Some incredible breed of people, the life of each of them is an unwritten novel.
Already in May 1947, through his efforts, the Saxon Mining Department was enlarged, reorganized and received the name familiar to our ears: a state joint-stock company, the first general director of which was Mikhail Maltsev. Yes, it’s worth noting one more point: it was very convenient for Maltsev to accept business from Semyon Alexandrov, his fellow Donbass resident. Such is the irony of fate: the natives of what is now Novorossiya taught the Germans the mining industry in a real way.
In 1948 alone, production began at the Berenstein, Marienberg, Freital, Niederpebel, Seiffenbach fields, and a new one was discovered, which became the largest in Germany - Niederschlem-Alberoth. 1949 - new geological exploration, discovery of new deposits - in Zobes, in Schneckenstein, in Bergen. Within a year, find, evaluate, begin operation - the workers of Bismuth and its boss managed to do everything. Where for 12 years the Nazis found nothing, where American super-pros saw 15 tons of ore, Bismuth found and mined, found and mined, found and mined.
Let's compare the numbers - what Bismuth gave at the output and what we managed to get from all territory of the USSR. 1946: USSR - 50 tons of uranium (more precisely, yellowcake, uranium oxide), "Bismuth" - 15 tons. 1947: 130 tons USSR and 150 tons – “Bismuth”. 1948: 183 tons USSR and 321 tons “Bismuth”. 1949: 279 tons USSR and 768 tons – “Bismuth”. 1950: 417 tons - USSR and 1224 tons - "Bismuth".
Where the Americans saw the drawing of the iPhone, Alexander Maltsev took uranium, which largely provided our first edren-loaf, the name of which was invented by the same Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria. RDS-1: Russians Do It Theirself.
You know, let the liberals tell all sorts of horror stories about Beria, accusing him of mass beatings during interrogations, spying for England, executions by his own hand, and even rape of Budyonny’s horse - personally, this seems to me to be of secondary importance. The facts are simple and uncomplicated; they do not allow for any double interpretation.
From the moment the United States learned to make atomic and nuclear bombs, they planned the atomic bombing of the cities of the USSR. The more bombs, the more targets were planned. 13 cities, 27 cities, 40... If our atomic bomb project had been entrusted to anyone other than Beria, I am sure that one or another American plan would have been implemented. And in those very cities where now wonderful, kind people with gentle souls tirelessly curse the “bloody Stalinist executioner,” there would be no one and nothing but radioactive ash.
We may not like Beria, we may hate Beria, but the fact remains: we are alive, we survived only because this person existed in the history of our country. He was in his time and in his place. In Russia, as far as I know, there is only one monument to this man. In Moscow, in the courtyard of MEPhI, on a pedestal, there is a full-size model of our RDS-1. And there is not and cannot be a better monument to Lavrenty Pavlovich.
Of course, “Bismuth” of the 40s is not only Alexander Maltsev. The work of the “uranium” people was so secret that their names began to “appear” only now. R.V. Nifontov, D.F. Zimin, G.V. Gorshkov, L.U. Pukhalsky, M.I. Klykov. In addition to Maltsev, N.M. worked at the “headquarters” of “Bismuth”. Esakiya, V.N. Bogatov, A.A. Alexandrov, N.I. Chesnokov. After the RDS-1 explosion in Semipalatinsk in 1949, many of these people received well-deserved awards; Alexander Maltsev became a Hero of Socialist Labor, like his fellow countryman Alexandrov.
Of course: by 1949, “Bismuth” was no longer just a mine. These include processing enterprises, transport and automobile repair departments, and our own machine-building plant. And also schools, vocational schools, hospitals, shops and all other infrastructure.
For whom?
In December 1946, 10,000 German workers worked at Wismut, in December 1947 - 46,000, in December 1948 - 65,000, and by December 1953 there were already 133,000 people. I remember 1953 not because of Stalin’s death - it was the year when the first German engineers and geologists began to appear at Bismuth. Young people who managed to get an education in the USSR - German was not valued, you know.
And back in 1953, “Bismuth” became a Soviet-German joint stock company - everything that was exported before was classified as war reparations. However, until 1990, everything that Bismuth mined was sent only to the USSR - but now for money. From the Ore Mountains, in which the Germans and Americans did not find uranium from the word “in general”, “Bismuth” was mined 220 000 tons of uranium. By 1990, Bismuth was the largest uranium mining enterprise in Europe and ranked third in the world.
Geological exploration was carried out on 55,000 square meters. km, over the years of Bismuth's existence, a total of 38,600 exploration wells have been drilled. The first years of work took place near cities with medieval mining traditions - Annaberg, Marienberg, Freiberg, Schneeberg. But time passed, the seams were worked out, the mines were closed, and in recent years work was carried out on completely new deposits - near Ronneburg, Schlöm and Königstein, not far from Dresden.
Those who arrived in Germany in the very first years of the “uranium era” managed to experience the “advanced German technology” of that time. Rectangular mine shafts, hand-cut, wooden supports, hand-held trolleys... "Wild barbarians" taught the Germans, what is concrete support, why do trolleys need engines, were introduced to such a miracle as electrified lifting drums, and built mine railways to deliver ore to the processing plant not on carts or even on dump trucks.
Semyon Nikolaevich, who came to the post of director of Bismuth in 1960 Voloshchuk worked in this position for 25 years. Another legendary man, another unwritten novel. It was with him that it turned out that uranium can be mined from a depth of 2 kilometers with a normal 8-hour working day. A unique cooling and ventilation system was developed with him and with his direct participation.
Yes, yes, no need to slyly squint your eyes: Voloshchuk gained experience in the mines of Donbass, although he came to it from near Kirovograd. Under Voloshchuk, in the early 80s, a new, environmentally safest method of extracting uranium ore - underground leaching - was successfully developed at the Königstein mine. But by that time we had to work with ore, the uranium content of which was about 0,7% and less: “Bismuth” was getting the last remnants of luxury.
In 1989, 47,000 people worked at 18 enterprises of the State Joint-Stock Company "Bismuth", but without any connection with political events, it was obvious that "Bismuth", which gave us a third of all our uranium, was living out its last years. Of the 19 deposits, all 19 were fully or partially developed. New deposits found on the territory of the USSR made the work of Bismuth less and less meaningful.
In 1990, the enterprise began to prepare for a completely different job: it was necessary not only to close, dismantle, remove, but also to ensure radiation safety of the environment and the population. The plans were drawn up, the stages were outlined, but it was not us who had to carry them out. The time of complete cessation of mining and enrichment was August 1990, the time of the disappearance of the state was November 1990.
The federal program for the reclamation of the Wismut territory cost Germany 7 billion euros. The rock dumps disappeared, the mines were filled in, any traces of the vital activity of the huge enterprise were removed, as well as everything else that remained from the Soviet nuclear project. The new authorities closed all GDR nuclear power plants, although none of them were obsolete. But studying the state of the German energy system is an interesting topic, but it is clearly outside the scope of the Rosatom Saga.
This was the history of German uranium. The memory of “Bismuth” has not disappeared - there are many websites, there is a veterans’ organization, two feature films were shot in Germany. In the Rosatom Electronic Library alone, I counted five books in which the history of the enterprise is described from different angles in the most detailed manner. If someone suddenly becomes interested, I’ll be happy to tell you where to look for something, but this article needs to stop, otherwise it will become endless.
German uranium helped us very much - both during the creation of RDS-1 and in the peaceful part of our atomic project. And I suggest putting a small tick like this: no more uranium – no more GDR. The timing is amazing, and what’s even more interesting is that this phrase will have to be repeated more than once.
As for the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany itself, here in terms of the uranium part everything is much more boring. There are traces of uranium in Bavaria and the Schwarzschwald, but the ores there are so poor and there is so little of them that there has never been any talk of any industrial mining. So today I can briefly describe the situation in the German nuclear industry: “Is anyone concerned about Germany's dependence on Russian gas? Don't scratch it"…
This is the story with German uranium. Under Hitler they could not find him - and thank God. We, our glorious grandfathers and grandmothers, found, and found a lot. And again - thank God: this uranium helped stop the American machine of destruction, the action of which the world clearly saw in the summer of 1945 in Japan. With the disappearance of the USSR and the GDR, uranium also disappeared. If someone really wants to, they can add a little mysticism to the atomic theme.
The note again turned out to be long, we will have to limit ourselves only to Germany. Next we should try to touch our “native” uranium, but, nevertheless, first we will finish the review of Eastern Europe. How to divide - where our uranium begins, and where it was a little foreign, but still ours?.. And I like this strange leitmotif, which will continue and continue.
There was uranium in Czechoslovakia, but Czechoslovakia and the USSR are gone - and there is no uranium in either the Czech Republic or Slovakia. There was uranium in the Polish People's Republic - now there is neither Poland nor uranium on its territory. There was uranium in Yugoslavia - further in the text. There was uranium in the People's Republic of Bulgaria - ... There was uranium in the Hungarian People's Republic - ... And the Socialist Republic of Romania - there was also ...
Whatever you think about it, I'm just listing the facts. Uranium in all of Eastern Europe disappeared along with the disappearance of CMEA. Uranium was even in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic - while the ESSR was alive. Are there any exceptions? Eat. One joke. Ukraine. I won’t say a word about politics, but uranium tells us: Ukraine cannot be a foreign state to Russia! And this is not bullshit, this, as you know, is heavenly metal!.. The Kremlin, Bankovskaya, the White House, Brussels - this is all superficial. Well, it seems so to me...
Uranium mining. The most terrible job on the planet
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