Kurchatov's closest assistant who ran the F-1 reactor, then denounced his mentor and was sidelined
"These graphite samples relate to neutrons as hungry wolves to lambs": reporting the first graphite quality measurements to Kurchatov
Igor Panasyuk was Kurchatov's most trusted pupil, the experimental physicist who ran the general management of Europe's first reactor F-1 and assisted Kurchatov at the control panel when it went critical on 25 December 1946. Joining Laboratory No. 2 in 1943 as deputy head of the reactor sector, he oversaw everything from graphite and uranium quality testing to core assembly, then repeated the role beside Kurchatov for the startup of the first industrial reactor 'A' in 1948. In 1954 he abruptly broke with his mentor and was sidelined to peripheral research; the cause, it is said, was a denunciation of Kurchatov to the Party.
Career Timeline
- 1937–1941Graduated Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, diploma under Kurchatov
- 1939–1943Red Army service, X-ray technician in field hospitals during the Soviet-Finnish and Great Patriotic Wars
- 1943–1947Deputy head of Sector No. 1 (reactors), Laboratory No. 2; F-1 construction and startup
- 1947–1950Head of Sector No. 1, Laboratory No. 2; scientific director of industrial reactor 'A'
- 1950–1954Head of the F-1 reactor facility; contributed to tritium production reactor AI-1
- 1954–1972Senior researcher at the Institute of Atomic Energy, peripheral research roles