From heavy-water reactors to the world's largest accelerator: 23-year director of ITEP
After Khrushchev agreed not to arrest ITEP dissidents in 1956, Alikhanov told the four who had spoken at the party meeting: 'If you knew what you were doing, you're heroes. If you didn't, you're fools.'
A founder of Soviet nuclear physics. His positron spectroscopy (1933–40) and magnetic spectrometer built with Kozodayev laid the basis for Soviet nuclear electronics. In the atomic project he was scientific secretary of the Special Committee's council, leading heavy-water reactor development. In 1945 he founded Laboratory No. 3, later ITEP, directing it for 23 years and personally leading the USSR's first heavy-water research reactor (1949) and first industrial heavy-water reactor (1951). ITEP's 7 GeV synchrotron (1961) served as prototype for the 70 GeV Serpukhov accelerator, the world's largest in 1967. Never a Party member, he shielded staff during anti-cosmopolitan purges, signed the 'Letter of 300' against Lysenkoism, and in 1966 joined Kapitsa and Sakharov opposing Stalin's rehabilitation.
Career Timeline
- 1927–1941Researcher, Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute (LFTI)
- 1933–1941Head of Positron Laboratory, LFTI
- 1945Scientific Secretary, Scientific-Technical Council of the Special Committee
- 1945–1968Director, Laboratory No. 3 / ITEP
- 1947–1951Head, Department of Structure of Matter, MSU