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According to its director of foreign affairs, Andrei Gagarinski, the Kurchatov has a lot of them.
ECONOMIST: The diamonds in the rubble
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Ivan was designed by a group of Soviet physicists lead by Igor Kurchatov and Noble prize winner Andrey Sakharov.
FORBES: It Was On A Night Like This In Russia, 50 Years Ago...
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Mr Gagarinski, asked what the Kurchatov will be doing 20 years from now, foresees research into large-scale nuclear power.
ECONOMIST: The diamonds in the rubble
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If he is right, the Kurchatov could have, quite literally, a glowing future.
ECONOMIST: The diamonds in the rubble
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This allows the Kurchatov to do things that are impossible in other countries.
ECONOMIST: The diamonds in the rubble
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But it is a massive gamble, and, if it fails, the Kurchatov has no hope of adapting itself to other kinds of work.
ECONOMIST: The diamonds in the rubble
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The trouble with the Kurchatov's extracurricular income is that most of it relies heavily on the extraordinary barrage of facilities that the Soviet era bestowed.
ECONOMIST: The diamonds in the rubble
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The Kurchatov Institute in Moscow is in a similar plight.
ECONOMIST: The diamonds in the rubble
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Even when a western organisation does have similar facilities, a project using one of the Kurchatov's reactors may be a lot cheaper to undertake than in a richer country.
ECONOMIST: The diamonds in the rubble
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Both Vektor and the Kurchatov are among its beneficiaries.
ECONOMIST: The diamonds in the rubble
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Kurchatov died in 1960, but Sakharov live through all the different design phases of the H bomb until it was brought down to 26.5 tons and its explosive power was reduced by half.
FORBES: It Was On A Night Like This In Russia, 50 Years Ago...
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But the Kurchatov's nest-egg will not last for ever nuclear reactors being what they are, it could last for a very short time indeed and it is irreplaceable, unless somebody else chooses to build nuclear reactors in the Moscow suburbs.
ECONOMIST: The diamonds in the rubble