Physicist from Sakharov's group who became the lead declassifier and historian of the Soviet H-bomb project
A Soviet nuclear physicist who began his career in Sakharov's theoretical department, Goncharov participated directly in the development of the RDS-6s (1953), RDS-37 (1955), and Tsar Bomba (1961), and proposed a new design direction for megaton-class thermonuclear charges. In the late Cold War, as the lead declassifier of Soviet nuclear archives under Yeltsin, he compiled the multivolume 'USSR Atomic Project: Documents and Materials' and published key papers analyzing Klaus Fuchs's 1948 report and the origins of the 'Third Idea,' placing himself at the center of the historiographical debate. His archival work provided the empirical foundation for arguments over whether the 1955 radiation implosion design was an indigenous achievement or aided by espionage.
Career Timeline
- 1952Senior lab assistant, then engineer, Experimental Nuclear Reactors Dept, KB-11 (Arzamas-16)
- 1953Staff physicist, Theoretical Department, KB-11 (under Sakharov)
- 1955Co-designed and computed the two-stage RDS-37 thermonuclear charge
- 1961Co-designed the principal physical scheme of Tsar Bomba (RDS-220)
- 1965Proposed new megaton-class charge design; first successful test in 1966
- 1967–2004Head of theoretical department, VNIIEF
- 1990년대–2009Lead compiler of 'USSR Atomic Project' volumes; nuclear weapons historian
- 2002–2009Chief research officer, Institute of Theoretical and Mathematical Physics, VNIIEF