About what the newspaper wrote on this day

55 years ago

No. 31 (1559), 24 April, 1970

In early 1970, construction of a new powerful pulsed fast neutron reactor, IBR-2, started. Development of this unique physical facility is a logical development of the "generation" of FLNP pulsed reactors.

The construction site of IBR-2. Pile driving for the reactor building is underway. Photo by A.Kuryatnikov

Interest in pulsed neutron sources has grown enormously in recent years. Many projects have appeared in different countries but each of them is based on the principle first implemented in Dubna 10 years ago.

The IBR-2 project absorbed many years of experience in working on a pulsed reactor - the "firstborn" of FLNP and other powerful stationary reactors with complex technology. Today, the implementation of the project has begun. This difficult task is met by a large team of specialists from JINR and other enterprises. Much depends on the precise and well-coordinated work of CCD and the construction organization.

It is very important to construct the new facility fast and efficiently that will allow scientists from the Member States to be at the forefront of science.

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The pulsed booster mode (operation of the reactor with the injector in the breeding mode) was carried out at the IBR-30 reactor. With this launch, the reconstruction programme was completely implemented at FLNP, during which a pulsed booster reactor was developed and put into operation that has a wide range of operating characteristics: average power up to 30 kW, frequency range of power pulses from 0.1 to 100 hertz, duration of neutron flash - from several tens to 2 ?s, instantaneous power during the flash increases millions of kW, flash energy - several hundred kW · s, small volume of the core (about 2.5 liters) ensures its high intensity. All this together with the neutron spectrum producing system and the choice of flyby bases allows creating best conditions for implementation of experiments of a wide category.

The commissioning of the pulsed booster was preceded by a complex adjustment of the injector - linear electron accelerator (LUE-40). In order to ensure the earliest possible start-up of the new facility, the accelerator was adjusted around the clock.

Development of the accelerator is the work of a large staff of employees. Some of its systems were designed and manufactured at the Research Institute of Electron Physics. Some of the accelerator systems, as well as its installation were carried out by the staff of the Design Bureau (Head of the Design Bureau B.Voronov), mechanical workshops (Head of the workshops N.Matsuev) and groups of the Reactor Operation Department. It is worth mentioning the specialists of the Efremov Institute of Electrophysical Apparatus E.Gusev, V.Smirnov, A.Toropov that supervised the complex adjustment.

Currently, first of all, it is necessary to achieve stable round-the-clock operation of the reactor and booster and further work to increase their power to the maximum permissible values in all design modes will be carried out.

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The 2nd Physical and Mathematical Olympiad of the city schoolchildren for the JINR Prize, organized by the Komsomol Committee in JINR with the support of TUC JINR was held in the conference hall of BLTP. More than 200 high school students from different schools of the city took part in the Olympiad.

The task distributed to the participants included two mathematical, one logical and two physical tasks that had to be solved in three hours. Opening the Olympiad, FLNR employee V. Kutner expressed the hope that the participants would successfully cope with the proposed task and find interesting and original solutions to the tasks. Chairman of the Jury, a BLTP employee, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences B.Barbashov addressed the participants with a short greeting.

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Brigade of bricklayers of P.Pakhomov from SMU-5 took an increased obligation: to build and hand over for erection a 24-apartment block of flats in the 20th quarter in 29 days. On 22 April, the brigade finished the construction work.

Brigadier P.Pakhomov says, "All these days, the brigade has worked with a huge labor uplift. Each of the masons carried out the daily work quota by 150-200 percent and higher. 980 cubic meters of brickwork have been completed, 1600 cubic meters of partitions have been mounted and installed, floors and roof have been mounted. The apartment house was ready for erection. Of the 20 people that carried out all the work on this house, it is difficult to single out the best. Everyone worked with enthusiasm, creatively, tried to do everything quickly and well. Huge assistance in the organization of labor, supply of materials was provided by the team foreman V.Shlebov. In our success there is a share of the labor of the mortar unit of the plant of reinforced concrete structures. Mortar, daily 20 cubic meters, was obtained by "green street" and with good quality. So, we fulfilled our obligation with honor. The house was ready for erection and on 22 April, part of our team worked on the laying of a new residential building in the 20th quarter."

Leading columnist Irina LEONOVICH