On 15 March, a celebratory seminar dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the commissioning of the IBR-2 Pulsed Reactor took place at the JINR Scientists’ Club. Guests of the event got acquainted with the history of the development and construction of IBR-2 and listened to thematic scientific reports.

The IBR-2 Pulsed Reactor is a unique research facility designed to conduct investigations in the field of condensed matter physics, materials science, nuclear physics, radiation chemistry, materials science, and other scientific fields.

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Director of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research Grigory Trubnikov and Director of the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics Egor Lychagin spoke at the opening of the Seminar.

The FLNP Director addressed words of congratulations to the employees of the Laboratory and spoke about the history of putting the reactor into operation, comparing the stages of its commissioning with the stages of human maturation.

“The IBR-2 commissioning is one of the most important events in the history of the Institute, preceded by the long and painstaking work of truly great people in the design and construction of the reactor. The team, with its hardened and solid character, has made a significant contribution not only to the science of the past and present, but also to the science of the future. The energy they put into the facility yesterday is driving many research projects and inspiring young scientists today,” the FLNP Director nored about the monumental work of the creators of IBR-2.

In his welcoming speech, the JINR Director congratulated the FLNP employees on this major event for the entire Institute and thanked the new generation of scientists engaged in research work at the reactor. Grigory Trubnikov addressed special words of gratitude, which were met with applause, to all the veterans who took part in the development and construction of the IBR-2. He noted the crucial role of the founding fathers of the Institute, Ilya Frank and Nikolay Bogolyubov, in the implementation of the pulsed reactor project. He spoke about his acquaintance with the IBR-2 during the years of active modernisation of the reactor.

“The school of communication with the people who worked on the construction of the reactor is incredibly important to me. Owing to the IBR-2 project, the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics has made a big breakthrough in world science today. Throughout the world, our Institute has become associated with this large multi-user facility, the work with which has attracted several hundred scientists from all over the planet and continues to be a scientific magnet. Such collaborations are of tremendous importance for the development of investigations in the field of life sciences. These studies have created a new promising research area for JINR in a short time,” said Grigory Trubnikov.

In a festive atmosphere, fifteen veterans of the Institute received JINR Honorary Diplomas for outstanding achievements in their work with the IBR-2.

Words of congratulations were also spoken by the special guests of the Seminar – Natalya Romanova, a representative of one of the largest nuclear design and research centres in Russia specialising in reactor technologies – N.A.Dollezhal Scientific Research and Design Institute of Energy Technologies (JSC NIKIET, Rosatom Corporation), and Dmitry Khmelevsky, a representative of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center – Ye.I.Zababakhin All-Russia Research Institute of Technical Physics (RFNC-VNIITF).

As part of the scientific and educational programme of the Seminar, one of the creators of the reactor, Evgeniy Shabalin, made a report “Unique and Unforgettable IBR”. In his very personal and emotional report on the history of the reactor and the people who worked on its construction, he built a narrative on the description of key events and memorable dates, representing them in the form of stones in the Ryoanji Temple Rock Garden. On the slides, the participants of the event could see official documents, diary entries and archival photographs that captured for history those events and those people who made this enormous contribution to world science. In addition to historical facts, speaking about the first startup of the reactor, Evgeniy Shabalin listed and explained the unforeseen effects discovered by the scientists and engineers during the startup. As his personal achievement, he noted the improvement of the movable reflector of the IBR-2, work on which was carried out from 1971 to 2004. Evgeny Shabalin compared the feelings of the people who built the reactor with the feelings of mountain climbers who reached the summit that has not yet been conquered by anyone.

The programme of the celebratory seminar included a screening of the documentary “40 years of the IBR-2 pulsed reactor”. The history of the development of the unique facility and the results of the work of the international scientific team were told by the leaders who in different years headed the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics at JINR.

At the seminar, Head of the FLNP Department of Neutron Investigations of Condensed Matter Denis Kozlenko made a report on the most important results of condensed matter research at the IBR-2 pulsed reactor over different years. The report gave an overview of the main areas of experimental studies that were carried out at different stages of the formation of the scientific programme for the reactor instruments. The role of the IBR-2 in the development of high-intensity small-angle scattering techniques, correlation diffraction methods, high-pressure scattering methods and other neutron techniques was especially emphasised. Denis Kozlenko stressed that the experience gained in the development of the IBR-2 instruments and the results achieved create a solid and reliable foundation for the development of the experimental base and the scientific programme for future neutron investigations at FLNP JINR.

Head of the Sector of Neutron Activation Analysis and Applied Research at FLNP JINR Inga Zinicovscaia presented an overview of the history and range of investigations using the neutron activation analysis (NAA) method at the IBR-2 reactor. The NAA method is intended to determine the elemental composition of the samples under study, and one of the main NAA instruments at the Institute is the pneumatic transport facility at IBR-2 – REGATA. As part of technical cooperation with the IAEA, the first modernisation of the REGATA Facility took place, with automatic sample changers installed and the first database created. In 2020, the control panel of the REGATA Facility was replaced. The tasks of automating the NAA, developing new scientific areas, and expanding international cooperation remain priorities for the scientists in the Sector.

At the end of the seminar, FLNP Director Egor Lychagin announced the opening of an exhibition at the JINR Museum and a new lecture as part of the series dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the commissioning of the IBR-2 Pulsed Reactor. On 29 March, the lecturer will be Evgeniy Shabalin.