All-Russia Research Institute of Automatics (VNIIA)

The All-Russian Research Institute of Automation (VNIIA) was founded in 1954 as a subsidiary of the Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (VNIIEF). After gaining independence from VNIIEF in 1956, the Institute focused on the development and production of electric and neutron initiation systems for the Soviet nuclear arsenal. In 2010, VNIIA integrated one of its nuclear complex counterparts, the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute for Pulse Technology (NIIIT, НИИ импульсной техники or НИИТ), into its structure. NIIIT, established in 1961, was one of the principal developers of systems and equipment used to measure and study the parameters of nuclear tests. ¹

Today, VNIIA continues to design nuclear warheads for both strategic and tactical platforms and participates in the stewardship of the Russian nuclear stockpile. The Institute is the only enterprise in the complex that designs and produces electric and neutron initiation systems for Russia’s warheads. VNIIA also designs and produces non-nuclear components and automatics, nuclear explosion monitoring equipment, test control systems, hardware, and methods to measure nuclear weapons parameters during experimental activities. ²

VNIIA’s civilian industry activities include the design and production of software and hardware for automatic control systems used in power plants, pressure transducers and relays for nuclear and oil-and-gas enterprises, portable neutron generators and X-ray units, radiation monitors, and seismic sensors. ³ In 2011, a new center focused on fundamental and applied physics research was inaugurated at the Institute. ⁴

Since 1992, VNIIA has cooperated with foreign laboratories, including through the U.S Department of Energy (Los Alamos, Sandia, Lawrence Livermore, Brookhaven, Oak-Ridge); the Joint Research Center of the European Commission, the Institute for Transuranium Elements in Germany, and the Institute for Protection and Security of the Citizen in Italy. ⁵ The institute also takes an active role in Rosatom’s materials control and accounting (MC&A) Equipment and Methodologies Working Group that, under a longstanding U.S.-Russian cooperative MC&A program, aims to install modern equipment and technologies at Rosatom facilities. ⁶