Speech by Academician A.M.Baldin at the Annual General Meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences

26 March, 1998

I am representing here the Scientific Council on the Physics of Electromagnetic Interactions of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Intergovernmental International Organization - the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna (JINR). The Council has been coordinating and developing research programmes in the field of extremely small wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation for more than 30 years. The investigation of the internal quark-gluon structure of elementary particles and atomic nuclei carries the discovery of new laws of nature that develop the natural science of the future, new areas of science (such as, relativistic nuclear physics that arose in the country and was developed in the largest accelerator centres of the world). A lot can be said on this topic if you follow the tradition of the General Meetings of the Academy of Sciences, summing up the results of the year and developing a scientific policy, giving recommendations on the distribution of the budget of the Academy of Sciences. However, the defeat of science occurring before our eyes highlights other problems. At the present session, issues related to the economic strangulation of academic institutions, personnel leaks, others were raised. I want to focus on the most acute issue - the salvation of the largest collective use devices, especially, accelerators that together with detectors are giant microscopes, allowing one to study the fundamental properties of matter in the field where such basic concepts undergo fundamental changes, like a proton or neutron, an electromagnetic field, the divisibility of a whole into parts. In addition, the so-called side outputs of fundamental science, that is, the results which effective demand quickly arises for should be highlighted. Research in particle physics gave rise to such significant technologies as applications of synchrotron radiation, computers and information systems, beams of photon and meson factories, industrial cryogenic systems, technical superconductivity, others. Large complexes of devices, each of which is guided by hundreds of institutes and university laboratories, went to us at a very high price. They are served, improved and developed by residents of villages - the so-called science cities, which scientific centres are the main city-forming enterprises for. These centres make up a significant part of the scientific and technological potential of states that have allocated a significant part of the budgets for their development. And today, television presents us with a forecast "about the transformation of science cities into unpromising villages". This issue did not pass by the Duma. We are talking not only about irreversible losses of huge national economic values, but also about the life and fate of citizens. The traditions of state support for science by all Russian governments, starting with Peter the Great, are lost by the current leadership of the country along with the loss of the state-regulated economy. The maximum effectiveness of state support for Russian science is in the 1950s. In 1957, the Dubna synchrophasotron started operating and then the world was stunned by the flight of the first satellite. Academician D.V. Skobeltsin, a representative of the Russian pre-revolutionary intelligentsia that played a huge role in the development of Soviet science, described both of these achievements in his press speeches as "peaks where the paths of progress of many areas of science and technology converge". From the press and conversations with American scientists, we know that the President of the United States then turned to the leading scientists of his country with a request to develop recommendations to overcome the strategic lag of the United States from the Soviet Union in the field of science and technology. Among these recommendations were:

1. A significant increase in funding for education;

2. Establishment and development of centres of great science and above all, acceleration centres.

Outstanding physicists that worked on the atomic problem moved to these centres. Around the same time, European states joined forces and started constructing accelerators for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). Since then, many accelerators have been constructed in the world but none of them had as much resonance as the Dubna synchrophasotron. Politicians of many countries have realized that the scientific and technical potential of the state is of paramount importance for the viability of the country. Excursions to the synchrophasotron of prominent figures of the world lasted more than a dozen years. Our priorities in establishing institutions of great science are obvious today: in all countries, including the United States, there is a reduction in the budgets of national laboratories "in relation to the end of the Cold War". However, it is about cutting budgets, not destroying science centres. What recommendations can be given to save science cities and what are the lessons of their survival on the relatively successful example of Dubna?

The current instrument base and the infrastructure developed at JINR allow providing about 2,000 user researchers annually and holding more than 50 international meetings and conferences in Dubna. The attractiveness of Dubna for foreign scientists is ensured by the high competitiveness of the conditions for implementing experiments. Among them are not only representatives of 18 JINR Member States, but also scientists from countries such as the USA, Germany, France, Japan, others, with the involvement of extrabudgetary funds and resources. Yet, that efficient demand becomes increasingly difficult to sustain. The incredible increase in tariffs for electricity, communications and transport, materials and equipment makes the expenditure and receipt part of the budget incomparable with unsatisfactory budget replenishing by the governments of JINR Member States, especially, the former republics of the USSR. Reducing this pressure is possible through the implementation of antitrust laws, such as, building local (municipal) power plants. Corresponding estimates are available. The intervention of the Government of the Russian Federation is necessary. The aforementioned side outputs of fundamental science can significantly support science cities. However, it is necessary to protect the money earned and to use it only in the interests of science. On behalf of the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, I prepared a memorandum on the experience of organizing the collaboration of science with industry, obtained during the development of the first superconducting accelerator of Nuclotron nuclei and its cryogenic base.

In early 1992, the leaders of the Orenburg plant turned to JINR with a proposal to establish, together with foreign companies, a major export of liquid helium to Western Europe. The plant produced unpurified helium in excess volumes. Industrial capacities were developed in Dubna and there was technological experience concerning the long-term traditions of using cryogenic equipment for the needs of a nuclear physics experiment. A certain role was played by the widely developed contracts of our Institute. Already in August of the same year, the first two containers of liquid helium with a capacity of 40,000 liters were delivered and afterwards, there was a rapid increase in this product of higher technology (purity 99.999%), that currently brings tens of millions of dollars in export revenue to Russia. Our specialists have made a significant contribution to the establishment of a base for the liquefaction of helium directly in Orenburg. The money earned by JINR in 1992-1995 allowed completing the construction and launch of the accelerator, meeting some social problems of the thousandth staff and helping pensioners. However, as the complex developed in Orenburg, there was a reduction in work carried out jointly with Dubna, in 1995, joint work ceased altogether and we were informed of our intention to set a market price for helium for JINR.

The Tax Inspectorate and Credit Bank of Moscow made their illegal contribution to stopping the process of developing a new kind of collaboration between science and industry. This and other examples show the need for effective legislative measures to protect intellectual property, compliance with contractual discipline and measures to develop the high-tech market. Next. JINR successfully met the problem of constructing a cryogenic fuel tank for the TU-155 aircraft that used liquid hydrogen as fuel. Earlier in the 1960s, we were also engaged in the development of technology for the industrial production of liquid hydrogen in the interests of rocketry. Hydrogen energy has an undeniable rich perspective, especially, for environmental reasons (preservation of oxygen in the atmosphere, water instead of exhaust gases, increased explosion safety, others). I have recently learned that the TU-155 has been converted to conventional aviation fuel and hydrogen work has been discontinued. The leaders of oil companies have long understood that in the future, hydrogen will displace oil products as a transport fuel and try to postpone it. JINR's contribution to hydrogen energy did not provide any contribution to the Institute's budget. In this case, there was not even a temporary coincidence of the interests of science and production. It is necessary to legislate the primacy of state interests over the interests of corporations and effective laws on special support for work with the prospect of large economic and environmental effects. Thus, along with the requirements for the restoration of direct state funding for science, every assistance is needed to protect the intellectual property and economic rights of scientific institutions. Judging by the quick and positive reaction of V.S.Chernomyrdin and his staff to my memorandum, the considerations set out in this speech have a chance of implementation.