The meeting of the Programme Advisory Committee for Nuclear Physics that opened a summer set of PAC meetings on 25 June was chaired by Professor M. Lewitowicz. He presented to participants of the meeting information on the implementation of the recommendations of the previous PAC meeting (January 2020).

JINR Vice-Director S. N. Dmitriev continued the meeting with information on the Resolution of the 127th session of the JINR Scientific Council (February 2020) and on the decisions of the JINR Committee of Plenipotentiaries (June 2020). He commented on the milestones of the meeting for the JINR media:

– It was our first experience of holding a PAC meeting as an online conference. The meeting was well-organized. Although we have shortened the programme, traditional reports on themes concluding this year and themes scheduled to open next year were made. We considered information about completing work at the Phasotron. It is long-term fruitful work related to proton therapy, treatment of cancer patients. So, the report by Head of the Department of the Laboratory of Nuclear Problems G. A. Karamysheva on the concluding theme “Improvement of the JINR Phasotron and design of cyclotrons for fundamental and applied research” was so highly evaluated. This activity will be continued, and the main task of the Institute and, of course, the PAC NP will be to work out the strategy for the creation of a new proton therapy centre not on the basis of the old Phasotron but on the basis of a modern superconducting accelerator.

The PAC members also considered the report on neutron physics. It concerned the reconstruction of the Van de Graaff accelerator, another important facility, and preparation of a new project “Modernization of the EG-5 accelerator and development of its experimental infrastructure”. Head of the FLNP Group A. S. Doroshkevich reported on this topic.

The report on opening a new project on neutrino physics was the last on the agenda of the meeting. The interest to the report “Muon ordinary capture for the nuclear matrix elements in 2β decays (project MONUMENT)” is evidenced by the fact that six reviewers considered it, and the report received the unanimous approval of the PAC members. The project is approved for the next three years. DLNP Senior Researcher D. T. Zinatulina presented the report.

Although some PAC members took part in the general discussion only remotely, it was held in an ordinary business atmosphere and was concluded with the adoption of the PAC recommendations.

Evgeny Molchanov, JINR Weekly Newspaper
Photos by Elena Puzynina