Director of the JSC «SSC RIAR» Alexander Tuzov presented a report at the meeting of the RAS Council on Heavy Ion Physics that was held in Dubna chaired by Academician Yuri Oganessian. It was held as a workshop in which leading scientists from Russian and foreign scientific centres took part.

At the meeting, which was aimed at discussion of programme of future research on superheavy elements in Dubna, a large number of presented reports was dedicated to one of the JINR flagship projects “Factory of superheavy elements” and various issues of research at this experimental complex.

It should be reminded that cooperation of specialists from the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors and the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions JINR in the fields of development and production of targets for experiments on synthesis of new elements started 20 years ago. Since then, targets for synthesis of elements 115, 116, 117 and 118 of the Mendeleev Periodic Table were produced.

Nowadays, scientists are going to implement an experimental project on synthesis of elements 119 and 120 at the accelerator complex “Factory of superheavy elements” (“SHE-Factory”) in Dubna. One of the major tasks of the project is planned to be solved in RIAR. “We suggest that modernization of the central neutron trap, provided by the reconstruction plan of the SM reactor in 2019 – 2020, will increase the number of irradiation cells, and thus it will be possible to implement a programme of production of target radionuclides in irradiated targets,” Alexander Tuzov noted.

As a milestone of the meeting, an agreement was reached to continue cooperation between the institutes and to organize visits of RIAR specialists to Dubna.

Background information:

The “SHE-Factory” is a new JINR basic facility for conducting experiments on studying mechanisms of reactions with stable and radioactive nuclei, which is the key element of the modern heavy ion accelerator complex DRIBs (Dubna Radioactive Ion Beams). The Factory of superheavy elements aims at accelerating radioactive ions for obtaining neutron-rich isotopes, including superheavy elements. It is expected that construction of a new high-current accelerator and its infrastructure will enhance the effectiveness of the experimental facilities of the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions and provide faster advancement deep in the “island of stability”.

Following the article by the Research Institute of Atomic Reactors