13 February marked the ceremony of the launch of a new main facility of the Laboratory of Nuclear Problems, the LINAC-200 Linear Accelerator. The Scientific Council members and the JINR Directorate representatives attended the event.

This February, specialists from the Laboratory of Nuclear Problems commissioned LINAC-200. The run involves a test launch of the first model of the facility, the electron accelerator, at 200 MeV.

On 12 February, a test electron beam launch at 24 MeV was successfully carried out. In the future, it is planned to gradually put the accelerator structures into operation at 400 and 800 MeV.

Before commissioning the accelerator, the laboratory’s employees carried out extensive varied work. Preparations included major repairs of building No. 118: ventilation, electricity, and water supply systems were put into operation, and modern radiation monitoring, interlocking, and alarm systems were designed and installed. The accelerator, transferred to JINR from the National Institute for Subatomic Physics (NIKHEF, the Netherlands), underwent extensive upgrades, including the creation of key subsystems using a new set of electronic components. As a result of the work carried out by the DLNP employees, four experimental beam extraction channels operating at 24, 60, 133, and 207 MeV were designed, all equipped with individual beam absorbers. Three channels were equipped with rotating magnets. The creation of magnets and vacuum chambers for the 60 MeV channel is nearing completion.

A user programme for research at the accelerator is being developed, primarily focused on the requests of the Joint Institute’s laboratories and scientific groups from the JINR Member States. The extracted LINAC-200 beams will be used for testing of prototypes of electromagnetic calorimeters and coordinate detectors for the MPD and SPD Experiments at the NICA Collider, applied work in radiation materials science, radiobiology, and radiochemistry, nuclear physics experiments, and the JINR University Centre’s internships for students and specialists from the Member States. Specialists from Vietnam are planning to implement a scientific programme to study photonuclear reactions at the 133 and 207 MeV beam extraction channels.