Employees of the Institute of Metal Physics of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the development of the Soviet Atomic Project

The paper highlights the contribution of the employees of the Institute of Metal Physics of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences to the first stage of the USSR Atomic Project. The main challenge of the project was the need to solve one of the most difficult problems that the developers of the USSR atomic shield faced—industrial separation of uranium isotopes. Thus, in 1943, I.K. Kikoin directed the first work on isotope separation using diffusion and centrifuge methods at the institute. I.K. Kikoin was appointed I.V. Kurchatov's deputy and was the main person responsible for the development of an industrial method for producing uranium-235 isotopes.