The review was written on a collective monograph devoted to the study of the Ural period of life and scientific activity of academician I. V. Kurchatov, as well as the history of the creation, formation and development of the first enterprise of the nuclear weapons complex of the Urals - plant No. 817, now the Mayak Production Association. The monograph is the first to systematically examine the multifaceted work of I. V. Kurchatov on the development and scientific management of the implementation of enrichment technology for plutonium-239, necessary for the first domestic atomic bomb. Through the prism of analyzing the history of participation of I. V. Kurchatov in the construction of the first industrial nuclear reactor and its commissioning shows the general picture of the implementation of the Soviet nuclear project in the Urals.