Chief designer of Soviet nuclear reactors
In January 1946, Kurchatov told him at their first meeting: "We must create an industrial uranium 'boiler' in the shortest possible time." Dollezhal devoted the rest of his life to reactor design.
An engineer of Czech descent, he was the Soviet Union's chief reactor designer, responsible for the reactors that powered the atomic bomb, the first nuclear power plant, and the nuclear submarine fleet. After meeting Igor Kurchatov in 1946, he designed the A reactor for plutonium production, enabling the first Soviet nuclear test in 1949, and built the AM-1 reactor at Obninsk, the world's first grid-connected nuclear power plant (1954). As founding director of NIKIET for 34 years, he developed the prototypes of every major Soviet reactor line — VVER, RBMK, and naval propulsion — making him a foundational figure of the Soviet atomic establishment. In the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, his role in the RBMK design drew sharp criticism, and he stepped down as director in 1986.
Career Timeline
- 1923Graduated MVTU, mechanical engineer
- 1930–1932Imprisoned in Prompartiya case; OKB-8 OGPU Deputy Chief Engineer
- 1933–1942Chief Engineer, Bolshevik plant (Kiev) / Uralkhimmash
- 1943–1952Director, NIIkhimmash (atomic project from 1946)
- 1952–1986Director, NII-8 / NIKIET
- 1954Chief designer, Obninsk AM-1 (world's first NPP)
- 1961–1986Chair, Nuclear Machines Dept., MVTU