The 113th regular session of the JINR Scientific Council. The JINR Seven-Year Plan: well on the way

Organization, 24 February 2013

On 21 – 22 February 2013, members of the JINR Scientific Council were acquainted with the decisions of the autumn session of the Committee of Plenipotentiaries of the JINR Member States, considered the implementation status of the JINR Seven-Year Development Plan for 2010-2016 in the main fields of research and proposals for updates of the Plan, heard the recommendations of the Programme Advisory Committees. Participants of the session learned about prospects of JINR research in astrophysics and neutrino physics, nuclear physics, heavy ions, discussed proposals for participation of JINR in modernization of the LHC.

In his report JINR Director V.A. Matveev presented the main results of JINR activities of the last year and plans for the current year. As the main results of the Institute, noted by the Committee of Plenipotentiaries, he marked the following: the NICA project entering the phase of capital investment, the start-up of a unique cold moderator at the IBR-2M reactor, JINR group’s important contribution in the discovery of the Higgs boson, JINR’s participation in the measurement of the neutrino mixing angle θ13, confirmation of the discovery of the superheavy element 117, a significant contribution of JINR to the construction of the Russia-based Tier-1 centre, broadening of participation of JINR basic facilities in the European research infrastructure as an example of cooperation with GSI (FAIR).


A Working Group for evaluation of the results of the first three years of the JINR Seven Year Plan (2010-2016) was appointed and the first results will be presented at sessions of the JINR Finance Committee and the Committee of Plenipotentiaries in March. The plan will be updated with an account of the results of development during this year. V.A. Matveev noted, that adjusting the Seven-Year Plan, it is necessary to preserve the original idea of concentration of resources on upgrading of the accelerator and reactor bases of the Institute. As it is an important issue, the agenda of the session includes reports of JINR Vice-Directors R. Lednický and M.G. Itkis who are responsible for the relevant fields of research. It became clear as well that the Road Map for the JINR development needs to be compiled at least up to 2018 or even better up to 2020.

From the results of 2012 JINR Director noted over 1,000 hours of experiment operation at Nuclotron, while the total duration of the 45th and 46th runs was 1650 hours. On the NICA project, a series of examinations, required for the construction of buildings, was held and an international tender is being prepared; companies of the JINR Member States are invited to participate in the tender (confirmation received from 12 companies). The tender will be held in February. In the field of superheavy elements – the two new synthesized in Dubna elements with atomic numbers 114 and 116 were officially aknowledged. In condensed matter physics: the modernized reactor IBR-M2 operated for physical experiment more than 1,400 hours, including 478 hours with a cryogenic moderator. Seven spectrometers operate at the reactor, and four more are in the process of modernization. Experiments in the field of radiobiology are being actively held.

By the decision of the PAC for Condensed Matter Physics a new astrobiological theme was opened – "Research on Cosmic Matter on the Earth and in Nearby Space; Research on the Biological and Geochemical Specifics of the Early Earth"; this theme was headed by the leading expert in this field Academician A.Yu. Rozanov.

Nearly 7.5 million tasks were executed by JINR Central Information and Computing Center in 2012. The Joint Institute covered 46% of the Russian segment of the GRID in the LHC experiments.

JINR theorists successfully work in several areas of theoretical physics: last year, they published 430 papers, nearly 250 of which – in journals. BLTP remains a traditional center of training of young specialists.

Applied areas of JINR activities were also covered. Last year, 92 patients were treated  in 2012 on the Phasotron proton medical beams of DLNP. The cyclotron U-235-B3 was delivered to Dimitrovgrad after the beam tests and the cyclotron DC-110, developed by FLNR scientists for Dubna scientific-industrial complex "Beta", is put into commercial operation.

The educational programme is being developed: about 500 students annually study at the JINR University Center. Training programmes for school teachers of physics from the JINR Member States is held jointly with CERN for several years: during this time 163 school teachers have visited CERN and 144 teachers have visited JINR for the period.

The elections of members of the JINR Scientific Council will be held at the session of the Committee of Plenipotentiaries in March. JINR Director expressed his deep gratitude to all members of the present JINR Scientific Council for active fruitful work.


MIREA Rector A.S. Sigov was awarded with the Diploma "Honorary Doctor of JINR".


Professor of the University of Milano (Italy) E. Fiorini was awarded the 2012 B. Pontecorvo Prize. He presented his report to members of the JINR Scientific Council.

P. Jenni reported about progress of updating of the European Strategy for Particle Physics.

Young scientists made presentations side by side with scholars: by a recently established tradition three winners of the poster sessions of the JINR Programme Advisory Committees were entitled to present their reports at the session JINR Scientific Council.

Correspondent of the JINR weekly newspaper "Dubna: science, community, progress" Olga Tarantina