Conferences

Uniting potentials

On 27 - 31 October, the International Conference "Neutron Physics and Radiation Materials Science NPRM-2025" was held at Yerevan State University. It was organized by the A.Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory (ANSL, formerly YerPhI), the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics (FLNP) of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of the Republic of Armenia and Yerevan State University. The Conference brought together leading experts in these fields from Armenia, Kazakhstan, the United States and JINR to discuss current research areas and to develop collaboration.

Vachagan Harutyunyan

Opening the Conference, Chairman of the Programme Committee and Head of the Applied Research Department at the ANSL Vachagan Harutyunyan expressed gratitude to the members of the Programme and Organizing Committees, as well as to the colleagues from the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics. He emphasized the importance of exchanging ideas, new technologies and gaining knowledge on current issues. "The Conference will give new impetus to expanding the horizons of knowledge and I hope it will become a tradition," he highlighted.

Welcoming his colleagues, FLNP Director Egor Lychagin said that several years ago, the FLNP representatives visited the ANSL and the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. During the discussions, potential research topics were identified but then, the IBR-2 reactor was shut down and contacts ceased. "At present, we can resume this discussion," Director emphasized.

Egor Lychagin

His invited talk "FLNP experimental infrastructure" opened the Conference's scientific programme. He introduced the participants to JINR's core facilities and projects, discussed the reactor's capabilities, the spectrometer complex and their development. Egor Lychagin highlighted that nine new colleagues from Armenia have joined the IBR-2 User Club this year and expressed hope that their number will increase after this conference. He also hopes that the collaboration with the Centre for Ecological and Noospheric Research of Armenia that began before the pandemic, in the field of neutron activation analysis will be carried out in future. E.V.Lychagin invited his Armenian colleagues to the 70th anniversary of JINR, the traditional scientific forums of the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics - ISINN and the Conference on Condensed Matter Physics dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Yu.M.Ostanevich that will be celebrated next year.

In his report "Neutron diffraction in modern solid-state physics and materials science" Anatoly Balagurov discussed global neutron sources, research techniques and experimental facilities, the IBR-2 spectrometers, research implemented at FLNP in this field and the most interesting results. He concluded by listing the main areas of neutron diffraction in condensed matter and emphasized that all of these are currently carried out at IBR-2.

Bagrat Grigoryan (photo by Olga Tarantina)

Director of the CANDLE Synchrotron Research Institute Bagrat Grigoryan discussed the research areas of his research centre that include accelerator physics, applied radiation research, technology development and materials science, including the investigation of new materials. The AREAL Accelerator Laboratory functions at the Institute, most of whose employees are under 35. The Laboratory collaborates with JINR and European research centres. Plans have been developed to modernize the accelerator and its electron beams by 2037.

During a tour of the Institute that same day, B.Grigoryan introduced the Conference participants to the fourth-generation synchrotron project. The project has long been ready for implementation; a site for its construction was previously allocated but funding still lacks. During a tour of the Accelerator Laboratory, Bagrat explained that provision had been made for the installation of wigglers and undulators to generate specific radiation used today in various fields of science, including ecology, geology, medicine and virology. "We have a linear accelerator with two experimental stations that allow the direct use of electron bunches," Bagrat stated. "We manufacture the accelerator sections ourselves. Solenoid, quadrupole and other magnets are also manufactured at CANDLE. We support our partners: a batch of quadrupole magnets was delivered for the accelerator at the DESY branch in Zeuthen, Germany."

During the tour, the Conference participants learned that the biology laboratory is equipped with a fluorescence microscope and that the new materials laboratory irradiates ferromagnetic compounds to reveal their useful properties. Modifying their magnetic or electrical characteristics can be used in technology. We saw specialized vacuum furnaces for producing pure materials. Introducing the laser system, Bagrat said, "We want to build a special structure that will excite an electron beam to emit radiation, that is, to develop a kind of resonator the multilayer walls of which consist of several materials with specific electrical properties. Our specialists have calculated that with the right selection of materials, we can achieve good, tightly focused and powerful radiation. We currently test copper plates coated with germanium; we do the deposition ourselves." The Institute also has experimental facilities where students from the University of Hamburg currently train in vacuum technology and magnetic field measurement technology.

Three representatives from the University of Notre Dame (USA) M.Visher, A.Aprahamian and H.Manukyan gave invited talks at the Conference. K.Shunkeev (K.Zhubanov Aktobe Regional University, Kazakhstan) also gave a talk.

Ani Aprahamian

Ani Aprahamian began her talk "Tritium burning in the Big Bang nucleosynthesis process" by reminiscing about how neutrons have been a part of her life. She has been studying neutron scattering since her student years, currently works in the neutron laboratory and hopes to carry out several experiments with the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics.

She later shared her impressions, "I am pleasantly surprised by the level of work carried out at FLNP. I've worked at most neutron centres around the world in France, in the USA and I didn't expect to see research of this caliber in this laboratory. The laboratory staff's reports left me with very positive impressions. I really enjoyed Nikita Fedorov's report on research using inelastic neutron scattering; it's useful for us, too but we don't have the neutron sources, infrastructure, or capabilities to consider joint projects. We're thinking about developing some kind of infrastructure in this area, although it's not easy and your facilities are unique."

Maksim Bulavin

Inga Zinkovskaya presented research on neutron activation analysis at the IBR-2 reactor. She also highlighted collaboration with Armenia in this field, describing investigations of contamination in several regions of the republic using NAA techniques and inviting colleagues to come and see experiments at the IBR-2 REGATA facility. In his report "Investigations of radiation resistance at the IBR-2 reactor in the period 2025-2030", Maxim Bulavin cited examples of research implemented for the LHC, the NICA project, neutron guides and sample environments for the IBR-2 reactor, the ESS neutron source under construction and material samples for the ITER tokamak. He discussed experiments to obtain isotopes for medical purposes, in particular, the isotope lutetium-177, widely used today in cancer treatment, radiation coloring of topaz and research in archeology, biology and medicine.

Director General of the Armenian Research Institute for Nuclear Power Plant Operation (CJSC "ARMATOM") Vahram Petrosyan presented a report "Investigation of control samples of WWER-440 reactor pressure vessel metal at the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant". He explained that the first and second units of the plant were launched in 1976 and 1980, respectively.

Vahram Petrosyan

They had been modernized and then came the blockade and energy crisis in the country but after some time, it was decided to restart the NPP. To extend its work once again, it was necessary to examine the plant's pressure vessel, its main component, to estimate the impact of thermal aging and irradiation on the metal. Following the investigation, the pressure vessel was annealed at 475°C that restored up to 90% of the metal's properties. This annealing will guarantee an extension of the plant's service life until 2036, when a new unit is scheduled to be launched. The speaker highlighted that the research carried out could be of interest to designers of fourth-generation reactors. "I found it very interesting to communicate with various specialists at the Conference," Vahram told our weekly. "Nuclear energy involves reactions at relatively low energy levels; compared to the interactions discussed at the Conference, these are reactions in the higher energy range. Nevertheless, our roots are there. If we collaborate on scientific research, we will ultimately find a practical solution. And that practical solution is nuclear energy, without which the world today cannot exist. New nuclear fuel and new technologies develop and the regulation of nuclear power plants using chain reactions is proceeding at a different level, with new automation. Therefore, we all need to communicate more, to know what's currently done in Dubna, here at YerPhI and at our Institute. I gave a report on how irradiation affects metal. Without researching and meeting these issues, it's impossible to put the nuclear power plants into operation and we cooperate with the Kurchatov Institute and the Gidropress Design Bureau on this issue. Even though I'm a nuclear reactor technologist, we absolutely can't do without physicists, without nuclear physics, without neutron flux kinetics, without hydrodynamics, it's impossible to put a power plant into operation. I value this collaboration very highly and meetings like this one are beneficial to everyone involved."

E.Arynbek reported on life science research using Raman spectroscopy at the Conference. E.P.Shabalin recounted the history of JINR's pulsed reactors, recalling that it all began in 1955 with an idea expressed by D.I.Blokhintsev at IPPE, then its Director. He concluded his report with a question: what should be done next in terms of designing a new reactor, to develop the current one or to construct something fundamentally new? He then announced Ya.A.Vdovin's report "Nitride fuel in the periodic pulsed reactor" in which the latter explained why the fuel for the next reactor should be based on neptunium-237 nitride and presented the Neptune project.

Tatyana Vershinina

Tatyana Vershinina that presented the paper "Investigation of modified surface layers using X-ray diffraction" has developed a joint research project with her Yerevan colleagues, "We've taken the first steps toward collaboration with the Armenian party: we have an agreement to carry out research on ternary oxides, in particular, to study the effects of various types of irradiation on the crystal structure of these ternary oxides. The research will be implemented using X-ray and neutron diffraction. The irradiation will be carried out in JINR. It's safe to say that it will be a comprehensive, interdisciplinary project. It often happens that initial steps later develop into major collaboration spanning multiple fields."

"We'll work on space materials science," V.Harutyunyan adds. "This is a very relevant topic, related to spacecraft exposed to cosmic radiation. Finding a protective coating could significantly extend their service life and improve their reliability. Such investigations are currently implemented, yet our research and sampling techniques are more cost-effective."

Norik Grigoryan (YerPhI) spoke about the collaboration, "I work at the Institute of Physics that is a co-organizer of this Conference. This is the second Conference organized jointly with FLNP. All the reports delivered here were very interesting and useful for me and our staff. We have very good relations with Dubna; we communicate regularly and colleagues from JINR visit us every year. I think this collaboration will definitely continue. We are scientists, we are not involved in politics, we continue to communicate, we invite you here, our young scientists visit JINR and return with very good impressions."

FLNP staff members also shared their impressions.

Nikita Fedorov said, "This Conference was a very interesting and useful event for me. I met colleagues from the United States that carry out research on topics similar to mine that I discussed in my paper "Fundamental and applied research using the tagged neutron technique at the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics". Furthermore, there's one interesting point. We currently develop a theory that allows us to calculate the angular distributions of gamma rays emitted as a result of de-excitation of inelastic neutron scattering products. However, at our energies, this theory isn't valid. At the lower energies, they study, however, there's a chance to apply this theory and to see how it compares to real-life conditions. So, I hope this meeting will result in very good collaboration.

The Conference is distinguished by its broad range of topics - nuclear physics, astrophysics and solid-state physics. On the one hand, it's very interesting, but on the other, it's a slight step outside your comfort zone because you're well-versed in one area and not so much in another. Nevertheless, I think it's very useful; it broadens your horizons. As for communication, we're among like-minded people here and we periodically have interesting, constructive conversations and not just about science."

Sergey Kichanov delivered an engaging paper "Non-destructive techniques for examining cultural heritage sites: neutron radiography and tomography". He remarked, "I really enjoyed the Conference. There were many diverse papers, unrelated to radiation physics but nonetheless, interesting and high-quality. I think JINR showed its capabilities. Our Armenian colleagues showed theirs. I really liked their accelerator equipment and laboratory. I think this Conference will mark the beginning of a series of projects and most importantly, will strengthen our collaboration with scientific organizations in Armenia."

Yersultan Arynbek added, "I was very impressed by the Conference. Firstly, I got to know my colleagues better and learned about the equipment and the results obtained in Yerevan. I particularly enjoyed the report on irradiating bacteria not only with protons but also with a laser with a wavelength of about 400 nanometers. I was surprised to learn that visible light can destroy these bacteria, thus sterilizing medical facilities. I believe that joint research projects with Armenian colleagues are scheduled for the near future. We will also possibly collaborate with colleagues from the K.Zhubanov Regional University (Aktobe, Kazakhstan)."

Maxim Podlesnyy's report "Production of boron carbide thin films enriched with the boron-10 isotope at low temperatures" raised considerable interest of the participants. "This is my first report of this type, I'm less directly involved in this area but it's currently developed in our Department of Spectrometers Complex. I mentioned at the beginning of my report that we have primary obligations to provide our facilities with detectors and I'm more of an expert on those detectors. Regarding the Conference reports, it's useful to know what the Institute's Member States, particularly, Armenia, is engaged in. I was sad to learn that they have no synchrotron but nevertheless, even without a large facility, they advance science, have learned to carry out applied research, have established collaborations with international centres and help them. It is gratifying. I hope in the future, they'll have the opportunity to fulfil their dream of a synchrotron."

Summing up the Conference, Egor Lychagin told our weekly:

"The idea behind this Conference was to introduce the Armenian physicists and the FLNP staff to the research areas they pursue at home, in order to find common ground: what can be accomplished using the FLNP and YerPhI infrastructure. In this sense, the Conference was a success, as the papers presented raised keen interest on both sides, sparking conversations and discussions about what could be done. I believe we should strive to increase the number of users of our reactor and perhaps, some of the technologies developed in Armenia could be applied here as well. For example, in synthesizing new samples or producing coatings that can be studied using our techniques. From this perspective, despite the relatively small size of the Conference, I consider it a success."

Do you think the young staff represented FLNP decently?

- As usual, the young people talked about their investigations and presented their results. And these results were generally of interest. Their reports were mostly of a more specific nature. For example, Maxim Podlesnyy talked about detectors but as you saw, there were a lot of questions, the detectors were of interest to everyone. The other students also did well.

A tour of the CANDLE Institute was held...

- The very existence of a large synchrotron project is interesting. There is no synchrotron yet, but the research that should be carried out on it, both biological and otherwise, is nascent. Equipment has already been purchased and research is underway. It's a bit unusual. I don't know how justified this decision was financially, but the laboratory is quite interesting, equipped with current technology and has young staff. It's a shame there's no synchrotron.

Will this event be the beginning of a series of conferences?

"It's difficult to say right now. Our laboratory has several traditional conferences in nuclear physics, ISINN, the IBR-2 Users' Meeting on Condensed Matter Research at the reactor. It's probably easier to invite scientists from Armenia to participate in our conferences. Perhaps, it would be worthwhile to come here periodically to compare notes, to see what's going on and where we need to focus our efforts. I prefer the format of working meetings on specific topics. Vachagan Harutyunyan talked to me about organizing this conference for several years but I declined because our reactor wasn't operational and we had no results to present. Since the new year, IBR-2 has been put into operation and we can invite colleagues to take measurements, so we've finally organized this Conference. And then, if more participants join and there are new research areas, we'll have to hold working meetings as usual and use our traditional meetings for communication."

Closing the Conference, Chairman of the Program Committee Vachagan Harutyunyan thanked all participants for their commitment, emphasized that the programme had been completed and expressed hope that future meetings would be held in Armenia. He added for our weekly, "The collaboration between YerPhI and JINR began a long time ago. I've been working there for 50 years now. And when I first came to the institute, they told me it was the most intensive collaboration of the Soviet period. It still exists today, developing in many areas - nuclear physics, high-energy physics, theoretical physics. We've been working with FLNP for five or six years now and have joined VBLHEP projects. We have joined the ARIADNA programme and discussed joint experiments with the programme's Director O.V.Belov. A month ago, a conference on high-energy physics was held in Yerevan. I and the acting VBLHEP Director A.V.Butenko discussed the current challenges in detail and O.V.Belov joined us by phone. Everyone is looking forward to the NICA complex to launch and then specific research areas will develop, primarily, in radiation physics and materials science. We are interested in the NICA collider beams; Dubna has a whole complex of radiation sources and we are doing our best to make the most of them.

Of course, there are a number of technical challenges but we need to prepare experiments and samples for them. Today and tomorrow, my colleagues from Dubna and I will discuss which samples need to be prepared for reactor experiments and which for the ARIADNA project. The Armenian Science Committee organizes an exchange of students, postgraduate students and young researchers. This summer, they will come to FLNP and VBLHEP for 20-25 days. We have already coordinated this arrangement with O.V.Belov, D.P.Kozlenko and O.Culicov. We want our students to learn about the experimental facilities and research areas of the Joint Institute and see themselves involved in these projects. And in September of next year, JINR Days will be held in Armenia. Plans are currently discussed for a workshop on radiation physics of condensed matter, in which YerPhI and the Yerevan Institute of Radiophysics will participate. So, our mood is positive. We are also in contact with G.V.Trubnikov and he is ready to support us. And today's conference shows that both young people and middle-aged scientists continue to collaborate.

The pandemic delayed this meeting and in 2024, I proposed to E.V.Lychagin: since we have publications and some plans, why don't you come here and share your findings and discuss who we could invite to this collaboration, so as not to limit ourselves to YerPhI but to involve representatives of other leading scientific organizations in Armenia. Our young colleagues that already hold PhDs and work in physics and materials science, spoke at this Conference. Neutrons are a very useful source for meeting such problems. Therefore, the capabilities of FLNP were a godsend for us. We are very pleased to have united our potential. This Conference is the result of a desire to collaborate and advance fundamental and applied science. We hope that in the future, our collaboration will expand to other JINR laboratories. It is very useful for young researchers to see the caliber of specialists that have come to Yerevan. E.P.Shabalin, a man devoted to science, flew such a long way to tell what they had done in their time to develop the first reactor in Dubna.

It's a great honor for Armenian physicists, mathematicians and chemists to work with an international intergovernmental organization but I can't give a final evaluation; that's for the Conference participants to decide. There's interest in the reports, people are asking questions that means the Conference was well-organized, with a clear scientific vision, bringing together not just fundamental and applied science but also a range of related topics of interest to various specialists. This is its main merit.

As Chair of the Conference Organizing Committee and the person who initiated it, I am very pleased: everything went perfectly, the Organizing Committee resolved all issues very quickly and the participants encountered no problems. You should know: if a conference is held in Armenia, then everything will be fine with the organization and cultural programme. I already know that there are those who want to come here again. And we are always ready to host you." (I want to confirm that the Conference went off without a hitch in organization and everyone was impressed by the cultural programme. In addition to the scientific tour of the CANDLE Institute, there was a fascinating introduction to the Yerevan Ararat-Noy Brandy Factory. And the trip to the pagan temple of Garni and the amazing mountain monastery of Geghard that included a lavash-baking master class, turned into a fascinating journey, largely thanks to the highly qualified tour guide Roza - O.T.)

In his response, the Conference Organizing Committee Member M.V.Bulavin thanked "this wonderful country, this wonderful city, Vachagan Viktorovich personally and the university administration for such a warm welcome. At the Conference, we discussed our cooperation; it has been ongoing for a long time and will continue. I fell in love with Yerevan and I hope to return here again."

And it's impossible not to fall in love with this beautiful city, with Mount Ararat "hovering" above, the hot October sun and the warmth of the hearts of the people of Armenia.

Olga TARANTINA,
Photo by Mesrop HOVHANNESYAN