21st century projects

Meeting of the Advisory Council of the International Research Centre at the Multipurpose Fast-Neutron Research Reactor (MBIR)

On 23 September, the second meeting of the Advisory Council of the International Research Centre (IRC) at the Multipurpose Fast-Neutron Research Reactor (MBIR) was held at the Scientists' Club of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research.

The key topics of discussion included developing a strategy for joint work at MBIR, plans for experiments in physics and materials science, as well as training specialists for the nuclear industry.

JINR Director and RAS Academician Grigory Trubnikov opened the meeting. "JINR joined the MBIR Consortium a year ago and hopes that the Joint Institute's experience in organizing international cooperation will be useful for the Consortium's development. Furthermore, the Institute has started exploring the possibility of using the horizontal experimental channels envisaged by the MBIR project for fundamental and applied research in nuclear physics, solid-state physics, medicine and radiobiology," Trubnikov said. He also emphasized that the goal of the MBIR project is to carry out advanced scientific research, to develop new technologies and to train highly qualified personnel. It requires close international cooperation and the exchange of scientific ideas and technologies.

Deputy Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Director of the IAEA Department of Nuclear Energy Mikhail Chudakov highlighted that the Agency supports the development of the MBIR International Research Centre that adheres to international quality and safety standards, "We believe, this Centre will provide access to the latest technologies and research techniques to achieve the development strategy for the fourth-generation reactor."

Welcoming remarks were also delivered by Chairman of the Advisory Council of the International Centre for Nuclear Research (ICM MBIR), Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Scientific Leader of the Faculty of Chemistry at Lomonosov Moscow State University Stepan Kalmykov; Director of Scientific and Technical Programmes and Projects at the Rosatom State Corporation Natalya Ilyina and Director of the Institute of Nuclear Physics at the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan Ilham Sadikov.

The international scientific cooperation in nuclear energy and development of joint research programmes were focused on at the Council meeting. The participants discussed the status of the facility and future experimental capabilities of the MBIR facility, as well as its role in integrating it into the global research reactor network. In this regard, examples of collaboration with partners from Uzbekistan, Belarus, Brazil and Vietnam were discussed, as well as the experience of establishing a User Centre based at the IBR-2 reactor.

JINR Vice Director Vladimir Kekelidze discussed preparations for experiments and the initial results at the NICA Complex, emphasizing the project's significance for the international scientific community. FLNP Director Egor Lychagin presented a report on the potential for applied research using extracted beams from the IBR-2 reactor and discussed the development of the user programme. A separate area of discussion was the training of personnel for the nuclear industry and the implementation of joint educational initiatives.

The event was attended by about 100 representatives of scientific centres and organizations from more than 15 countries, including delegations from Russia, China, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, India, Vietnam and Brazil, as well as representatives from the IAEA, the African Commission on Nuclear Energy and the Arab Atomic Energy Agency.

JINR Press Office