From nuclear-weapon designer to critic of the arms race
Of the nuclear arms race, he wrote: “I cannot see a use even for one bomb.”
Lev Feoktistov was a Soviet theoretical physicist who helped develop nuclear and thermonuclear weapons before becoming an advocate of disarmament and reactor safety. At Arzamas-16, he worked on thermonuclear designs growing out of the Sloika and left a firsthand account of the breakthrough known as the “Third Idea,” the emergence of a workable two-stage design. He recognized the technical achievements of the weapons program while questioning the logic of nuclear testing and the arms race, and later turned to laser fusion and inherently safe reactors.
Career Timeline
- 1945–1951Studied nuclear physics at the Physics Faculty of Moscow State University
- 1951–1955Researcher, theoretical department of KB-11, Arzamas-16
- 1955–1978Theoretical physicist, VNIITF, Chelyabinsk-70
- 1966Hero of Socialist Labour and corresponding member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences
- 1978–1988Researcher at the Kurchatov Institute and professor at MEPhI
- 1988–2002Head of the laser-fusion department at the Lebedev Physical Institute
- 2000Elected full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences