In JINR laboratories

Let projects be implemented

On 29 December, the final meeting of FLNP STC was held. It started with an award ceremony for the Laboratory staff.

In 2025, the employees of the Mechanical and Technological, the Electrical and Technological Departments, of IBR-2, of the Central Experimental Workshops of the Laboratory (in photo) A.A.Akimenko, N.Yu.Bolotina, M.O.Vasiliev, I.V.Danilov, D.Yu.Denisenko, D.V.Zaitsev, S.V.Kozyrev, D.V.Kokunov, A.E.Kocheshkov, S.V.Milakin, Yu.M.Slotvitsky, R.V.Yakovlev were awarded JINR Letter of Thanks for successful operation of FLNP basic facilities. Congratulating the awardees, JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov said, "We award employees of an almost invisible workshop but these are people on the labor and responsibility of whose the launch of the reactor depended this year. The Institute expected a feat from FLNP and you accomplished it. In a densely loaded format of life of the Laboratory, they launched the reactor, realizing that this is the basic facility of JINR. Thank you very much, thank you to the whole Laboratory!"

A.A.Bogdzel, E.A.Golubkov, Yu.E.Gorshkova, S.Davaasuren, A.G.Kolesnikov, A.A.Kruglov, G.V.Kulin, E.V.Lukin, B.Mukhametuly, I.V.Papushkin, P.S.Prusachenko, S.V.Sumnikov, Ts.Tsolmon were awarded a Letter of Gratitude from JINR for the successful implementation of the scientific programme of FLNP in 2025. Traditionally, at the end of the year, the winners of the I.M.Frank Scholarship are announced. Diplomas, as well as the books of Ilya Mikhailovich and a photo album about him were awarded to P.S.Prusachenko, V.S.Smirnova, S.V.Sumnikov, Ya.A.Vdovin, E.Arynbek. Diplomas of winners of the second JINR Prize for the paper "Pressure-induced phase transitions in perovskite-like layered titanates" were awarded A.G.Asadov, S.E.Kichanov, D.P.Kozlenko, E.V.Lukin. The winners of the F.L.Shapiro Scholarship for 2026 have been announced, whose diplomas are traditionally awarded on the birthday of Fedor Shapiro. They were A.V.Andreev, B.A.Bakirov, O.N.Lis, M.O.Petrova.

Summing up the results of the year, FLNP Director Egor Lychagin began with the most important achievement - the launch of the reactor after a long shutdown. Since 17 February, seven cycles have been carried out, the reactor is stable at a power of 1.45 MW, several power discharges have occurred due to malfunctions in the external power supply network. Contracts have been signed for the manufacture of new fuel elements and the export of spent fuel. They will be paid at the expense of the debts of the previous period returned by the Russian Federation. The User Programme has been resumed: from those submitted for the second half of 2025 and the first half of 2026, 203 applications have been selected for experiments, including from 167 new users. As before the reactor shutdown, two-thirds of the users are the representatives of JINR and Russia. The membership of other user countries has changed: if in 2021 the representatives of Poland, Romania and Slovakia applied most of all, then applications from India, China, Armenia and other countries appeared for experiments in the first half of 2026.

From the scientific results of the Laboratory for his report, Director selected the following. In the Department of Neutron Investigations of Condensed Matter, "Phenomena caused by pressure in low-dimensional van der Waals materials - chromium chlorides and bromides" were studied. These promising materials demonstrate new physical phenomena and unprecedented possibilities for controlling magnetism and spin transport phenomena. Together with the colleagues from FLNR and MISIS (Moscow), the "First comprehensive structural investigation of the k-carbide phase in Fe-Ga (Al) alloys" was carried out. These alloys show a gigantic magnetostrictive effect, the understanding of which is an urgent issue in condensed matter physics and materials science. Together with the staff of the Omsk State Transport University, using an FSD diffractometer, an investigation was carried out on the microstructure of a series of samples of axle box bearing rollers made of hardened ShKh15SG bearing steel.

The further development of the BJN inverse geometry spectrometer for inelastic neutron scattering investigations with the maximum possible aperture was carried out. The energy analyzer for it is based on crystals of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite of a large area. To experimentally test the principle of the analyzer, a prototype was developed, experimental measurements using which are in good agreement with simulation data. As Egor Lychagin highlighted, purchases of graphite required for the spectrometer were underway. The report included two papers of the Sector of the Raman Spectroscopy - "The secondary structure of lysozyme encapsulated in a graphene sandwich" and "CARS microscopy in medical applications". In the first, a new approach to encapsulation of lysozyme protein between two graphene-containing films on a porous silicon substrate with silver nanoparticles was proposed and implemented. The second paper was performed at the request and with the assistance of employees of the First St. Petersburg State Medical University. Its goal was to evaluate the role of cholesterol microcrystals and neutrophil extracellular traps in postoperative thrombotic complications after open aortic surgery. FLNP Director hoped that this cooperation would be carried out in future.

In the Division of Nuclear Physics, within the framework of the TANGRA project, a large cycle of methodological research was actually completed in 2025: emission cross sections of characteristic gamma quanta were measured for 59 elements of the Periodic Table, for 23 elements, data on cross sections were obtained for the first time. The research participants hope to collect their results into an atlas.

During the reactor shutdown, the modernization of the Regata facility was completed. An analysis of samples of biomonitor mosses having been collected during the periods before, during and after the pandemic to estimate air pollution with heavy metals along the Leningradsky, Dmitrovsky and Yaroslavsky highways within the Moscow Region revealed a clear anthropogenic nature of these pollution. The speaker also emphasized such a new genre for JINR as innovative projects. Of the 30 applications submitted for the competition in 2025, the Expert Commission selected five, including I.Zinkovskaya's project "Testing neurotoxicity and estimating the accumulation of contrast agents, nanoparticles and other compounds in animal models in the test-as-a-service format".

In November, a sanitary and epidemiological conclusion was obtained on the compliance of the conditions for implementing work at the IREN facility with sanitary and epidemiological standards and rules. Work to estimate the optimal operating mode is underway, stability is still the key issue. Work on the design of a prototype source of ultracold neutrons (UCN) has started, a large number of young people participate in the project that were united and headed by A.I.Frank.

On 27 November, a memorandum was signed between JINR and the Institute of Nuclear Physics (Almaty, Kazakhstan) on the intentions of joint development and development of a high-intensity UCN source at the WWR-K research reactor in the INP. FLNP helps the colleagues to develop the infrastructure of this reactor.

Modernization of the EG-5 accelerator is underway. On 22 December, a sanitary and epidemiological conclusion was obtained on the compliance of the conditions for implementing work on it with sanitary and epidemiological standards and rules.

Director of the Laboratory expressed gratitude to the employees of the Department of Spectrometers Complex that had helped physicists during the start of the reactor to establish experimental equipment. There is a special area for boron carbide film coating for slow neutron detectors in the department.

The first volume of the book " Scientific research areas on an advanced pulsed neutron source" has been prepared at FLNP.

The Laboratory joined the process of establishing a nuclear centre in Vietnam, it will assist in the development of neutron instruments and equipment on the derived beams, a scientific programme. Scientific proposals have been developed for laboratories of neutron scattering spectrometers, neutron radiography, neutron activation analysis and a laboratory for fundamental and applied research in nuclear physics. Vietnamese colleagues come to FLNP to learn from neutron scattering experiments.

The number of business trips to China has increased significantly, since in addition to participating in the ISINN-31 Conference held there this year, the FLNP employees went to experiments at CSNS. The FLNP specialists took part in major scientific conferences in China, Vietnam, Russia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Albania, Belarus. 9 FLNP and 26 topical seminars of various departments were held.

The employees of the Mechanical and Technological Department were engaged in the repair, comprehensive configuration and optimization of the equipment of technological IBR-2 systems, cryogenic equipment and heat, water supply and ventilation systems. Three years later, work was completed with a backup movable MR-3R reflector. The Electrical Engineering Department installed lightning protection on all FLNP buildings. The FLNP Workshop employees manufactured equipment for physical experiments of the Laboratory and for the third-party customers, equipment for assembly and testing of fuel assemblies was restored, a new transport for scheduled transportation of fuel assemblies was purchased. The Design Bureau carried out design work to support work on the IBR-2 reactor and for the needs of departments. Work on obtaining a license for the right to design for nuclear facilities is underway. In 2025, a fairly large amount of repair and construction work was carried out at FLNP.

The staff of the Laboratory as of 17 December was 547 people, of which 85 employees are not citizens of the Russian Federation (last year, there were 96 people, in 2023 - 87). Compared to the pre-pandemic period, this figure has decreased from 20% of the total number of employees to 15%. This year, five candidate theses and a doctoral thesis were defended, a total of 134 laboratory employees have a degree. The average age of a FLNP employee is 49.4 years.

The Medal of the Russian Neutron Society "For outstanding contribution to the development of neutron scattering" was awarded to the chief researcher of the Laboratory Viktor Aksenov.

Returning to the key tasks of last year, Egor Lychagin emphasized those of them that could not be fully completed (delivery from Europe of a detector for installing low-angle scattering) or partially - they are moving into the 2026 plan. It reads: uninterrupted operation of the reactor in accordance with the schedule; providing the Nuclear Safety Group of IBR-2 with new promising young employees; attracting new users; attracting new employees from Member States; ensuring regular work of IREN for the experiment; completion of the high-voltage EG-5 system upgrade and commissioning of the accelerator in test mode; estimating the prospects of the reactor in the work on the project of creating a new source; establishing cooperation with NIKIET.

I hope that the implementation of this plan will be facilitated by the wish of Egor Lychagin to the entire staff that also says, "May 2026 bring you new discoveries and achievements, inspire you with bold ideas and creative solutions! Let our projects be successfully implemented and scientific research bring fruitful results."

Olga TARANTINA,
photos by Veronika SMIRNOVA