Education
Gorky Polytechnic Institute named after A. A. Zhdanov (1938).
Main facts of activity
1939–1942 – head of a design bureau group at the Stalingrad Shipyard; Gorky Machine-Building Plant: 1942–1951 – head of a department, deputy head of a shop, deputy chief technologist, deputy head of the OKB chief designer's office, 1964–1969 – head and chief designer of OKBM. Direct participant and leader of work on creating equipment for diffusion plants, industrial nuclear reactors, reactors and steam-generating units (PPU) for nuclear ships and submarines. He was chief designer of the first and modernized PPU of the nuclear icebreaker "Lenin", of the Project 1052 icebreakers ("Arktika", "Sibir"), of the PPU for second- and third-generation nuclear submarines, of the BN-350 and BN-600 fast-neutron power reactors, and of other projects.
Main results of engineering and production activity
Creation of diffusion machines for producing enriched uranium. Industrial nuclear reactors for producing weapons-grade nuclear materials. Nuclear reactors and steam-generating units for nuclear icebreakers. Reactors and steam-generating units for nuclear submarines. Sodium-cooled fast-neutron reactors. Caring about the comprehensive development of OKBM and the training of specialists, with the support of A. P. Alexandrov he achieved the establishment in 1962, within GPI, of a Physics and Technology Faculty. From the faculty's founding he carried out teaching and methodological work with students as a professor and head of department.
Scientific works
Books - "Calculation of Valve Steam Distribution in Marine Steam Engines", "Design, Theory and Calculation of Rotating Shaft Seals", "Marine Nuclear Power Plants" (co-authored with F. M. Mitenkov).
Awards
3 Orders of Lenin (1951, 1959, 1960), the Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1954), the Order of the Red Star (1945), the "Badge of Honour" (1944), the medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945". In 2000 OKBM was named after I. I. Afrikantov.