ソ連における初期ウラン資源開発

With the initiation of the first Soviet atomic bomb developing project, the Soviet political authority began to make every effort to develop and secure uranium resources sufficient for their project by conducting the overall investigation for uranium deposits throughout their vast territory. In addition to those domestic measures, the Soviet Union demanded the newly established pro-Soviet governments in the Eastern Europe for their “cooperation” in securing the uranium resources for the Soviet nuclear projects. This review tries to trace the Soviets’ efforts for the uranium resources from the start of their atomic project to the mid-1960s when they could secure the abundant quantity of uranium. Thanks to the large-scale field investigations, the wide application of high-performance gamma-radiometers which enabled the search for the radioactive minerals from the trains, airplanes or helicopters in 1950s and other improvements of mining method, the exploration for the uranium ore and the uranium mining became so efficient. Such a rapid growth of uranium mining, however, brought about the unbearable radiation exposition to the mine workers.