The State Corporation “Rosatom” and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Researcher signed a cooperation agreement on partnership interaction in some issues of leading scientific projects, including the development of the NICA collider complex, the Superheavy Element Factory, the use of the IBR-2 pulse reactor and the development of a new pulse reactor facility in Dubna.

The agreement was signed in the frames of the joint meeting of the Presidium of the Science and Technology Council of the State Corporation “Rosatom” and leaders of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research that took place on 11 December in Moscow chaired by Academician G. N. Rykovanov. Director General of “Rosatom” Alexey Likhachev and JINR Director, RAS Academician Victor Matveev signed the document.

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“Our organizations have been cooperating for several dozens of years. In the 21st century, the Mendeleev’s Periodic Table was completed with six new elements. The five heaviest of them (elements 114 – 118) were discovered in Dubna, at JINR. Research has been conducted for more than 15 years, and throughout all this time Rosatom enterprises, namely JSC “Electrokhimpribor” and JSC «SSC RIAR», provided JINR with the necessary amount of isotopes, helped with the production and processing of targets,” Alexey Likhachev said.

He also noted that another “very significant scientific project” implemented with the participation of Rosatom is the NICA complex. “It is a new accelerator complex (a collider) developed on the JINR basis to study the properties of the baryonic matter. After putting the NICA collider into operation, JINR scientists will be able to create in laboratory conditions a special state of matter in which our Universe stayed shortly after the Big Bang,” A. Likhachev added. He expressed his confidence that the signing of the agreement would open a new stage of already established JINR-Rosatom cooperation.

“The fact that we have gathered here, at Bolshaya Ordynka street, in such membership is a prominent event,” JINR Director Academician V. A. Matveev said in his turn. “JINR founders were specialists in the atomic field, prominent scientists and bright personalities, who created at JINR a research atmosphere that still continues to determine the basics of activities of our international scientific centre. And we preserve and support it. We implement a wide research programme that will be reflected in today’s reports. New scientific and technical centres are being established in the countries where Rosatom will construct nuclear power stations, where it is necessary to train a new generation of specialists. And our interests coincide at this point: a part of these countries are the JINR Member States, another part of them are constant partners of the Institute. So, we have a wide field for joint activities in the future.”

First Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation G. V. Trubnikov welcomed participants of the meeting. He noted that in the light of plans for development of both organizations discussed here expertise in addition to manufacturing and intellectual power of Rosatom together with the level of the development of fundamental research and the international status of the Institute should give an impetus to the cooperation in terms of joint market development and coming into new markets, first of all in the fields of education and the personnel training as the basic sector of economy. The results of fundamental research conducted in the Institute, which have already reached the advanced level, may be a driving force for Rosatom to make technological developments in the 2030-2040s. Maybe it would be great to make such meetings regular.

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The programme of the meeting included reports on major fields of cooperation made by leading scientists of JINR, leaders of JINR large-scale projects, as well as their colleagues from Rosatom cooperating organizations.

JINR Vice-Director, VBLHEP Director, RAS Corresponding Member V. D. Kekelidze made a report on the NICA mega-science project co-authored by D. V. Petrov (VNIITF).

Scientific Leader of the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions JINR Yu. Ts. Oganessian dedicated his report to new opportunities in the synthesis of superheavy elements. A co-report “Opportunities of the State Corporation “Rosatom” in providing isotopes to the Superheavy Element Factory accelerating complex” was delivered by Director of JSC “SSC RIAR” A. A. Tuzov; co-authors of the report were M. A. Semenov (Production Association «Mayak») and N. V. Zavialov (VNIIEF).

The IBR-3 fast pulse reactor was a topic of the report by FLNP Scientific Leader, RAS Corresponding Member V. L. Aksenov; the co-author of the report was A. V. Lopatkin (NIKIET).

JINR Assistant Director G. D. Shirkov, RAS Corresponding Member G. D. Shirkov made an overview of the theme “Accelerators for nuclear medicine”. The co-author of the report was V. P. Smirnov (NIITFA).

Short comments after the document was signed

Victor Matveev: “Signing of this document is very significant to our Institute. As we may see from the reports made here today by leading specialists all our hopes concerning the prospects for the active Institute’s development in the key fields of fundamental nuclear science cannot come true without the Rosatom participation. We hope that Rosatom will also benefit from this cooperation, and we offer to hold the next meeting in Dubna.”

Alexey Likhachev: “We identify three systemic tasks in the State Corporation. The first one is purely economic and concerns the increase of income, cost-effectiveness, and reduction of expenses. The second task is also important: we need to develop our technological platforms placed in various cities. It is a quintessence of modern technologies, and now we include more fields in it, such as digital economy, quantum computing, new materials. And the third task is to develop a fundamental field of collaboration development, namely the scientific one. It is the basis for our development. Today’s meeting is a step for us towards understanding existing directions and development of new ones. All the issues we have touched upon today are important components of the current and future agenda of the Russian nuclear industry.”

Materials by the State Corporation “Rosatom” were used to prepare the article
Evgeny Molchanov, JINR Weekly Newspaper
Photos by Igor Lapenko