I. General considerations

1. The Scientific Council takes note of the extensive report presented by JINR Director V. Kadyshevsky on the implementation of the Scientific Council’s recommendations concerning the reform programme of JINR.

The Scientific Council highly appreciates the significant progress made so far within the reform programme in the areas of basic facilities, infrastructure and personnel policy, as well as in the centralized management of financing JINR research projects in view of the continued problems with funding of JINR by its Member States.

2. At this session the Scientific Council was informed about the JINR Directorate’s final proposals concerning the future activities and structure of the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics:

· To maintain at FLNP

– the fundamental and applied research activities in nuclear physics with neutrons,

and

– сondensed matter studies using various physical methods

within one Laboratory, with the scientific departments established during the last two years.

· To maintain at FLNP the units for the facilities IBR-2 and IBR-30 (for two years) and departments and services connected with them, which must afford technically the modernization of IBR-2 and the development of the IREN installation, as well as the exploitation of the existing neutron sources until their dismounting for reconstruction.

· To improve the organization of work for the construction of the IREN facility with a view to the completion of its first stage in 2002. Construction of the IREN linac and multiplying target will be provided by FLNP and the LPP accelerator department.

· To elect the FLNP Directorate at the 90^th session of the Scientific Council in June 2001. The JINR Directorate will propose Dr A. Belushkin as a candidate for the FLNP Director position.

The Scientific Council endorses these proposals, which were also strongly supported by the PACs for Condensed Matter Physics and Nuclear Physics.

The Scientific Council notes that on 1 January 2001 Dr A. Belushkin was appointed as Acting Director of FLNP.

3. The Scientific Council requests to be informed at the next sessions about the progress of the reform programme and about the Directorate's new scientific proposals aimed at further optimization of JINR’s research programme through concentration of the available human, financial and material resources.

4. The Scientific Council appeals again to all Member States to fulfil their financial obligations to the Institute. Timely payments would benefit the scientific mission of the Institute, including its ambitious reform programme. The Scientific Council asks the JINR Directorate to undertake steps for direct negotiations at governmental level with the Member States that have debts to the Institute.

Since the establishment of JINR, Poland and the Polish members of the Scientific Council have been playing an important role in the formation of JINR’s scientific policy. Their ideas, proposals, critical remarks and positive attitude are highly appreciated.

The Scientific Council thanks the representatives of Polish research centres, universities and other Institutions for taking part in the round-table discussion.

The Scientific Council acknowledges the continued efforts made by the JINR Directorate to develop the international cooperation. In particular, it appreciates the extensive and fruitful collaboration of JINR with Polish research centres, highlighted by the round-table discussion at this session and by the dedicated photo exhibition.

The Scientific Council looks forward to further successful development of the cooperation between JINR and its member-state institutions.

The Scientific Council wishes that similar discussions concerning scientific and technical cooperation with research centres of the Member States be included in the agenda of future sessions.

1. The Scientific Council takes note of the “Status report on the operation of the JINR basic facilities and on the construction of the IREN facility” presented by Chief Engineer I. Meshkov.

The Scientific Council highly appreciates that the JINR Directorate has managed to ensure the stable operation of the basic facilities according to schedule in 2000 and their further development. The recommendation of the Scientific Council to concentrate manpower and resources on the most urgent activities, in particular those which concern modernizing and establishing stable operation of the JINR basic facilities, is being implemented by the JINR Directorate.

The Scientific Council also appreciates the successful efforts of the Nuclotron team to develop this machine into a routinely operating facility for implementation of a wide research programme.

The Scientific Council notes that the programme of the IBR-2 reactor refurbishment was pursued in 2000 according to schedule and looks forward to the successful continuation of this activity in 2001.

The Scientific Council agrees with the decision of the JINR Directorate to complete the construction of the first stage of IREN in 2002. It is important to have this facility achieved by the end of 2002 to deliver beams allowing resumption of the neutron physics programme after the outphasing of the IBR-30 reactor in the middle of 2001.

The Scientific Council is pleased to note the running performance of the Phasotron in 2000 and the extensive research programme with its beams. The ongoing work on cancer treatment using beams of this facility is of special importance.

2. The Scientific Council takes note of the report “Status of the DRIBs project” presented by FLNR Director M. Itkis.

The Scientific Council is impressed with the fast realization of the DRIBs project and stresses that it should be actively pursued. In view of the upcoming ISOL facilities worldwide, the first stage of DRIBs – production of the light radioactive ion beams – should be realized in 2001, and the second stage – acceleration of fission fragments – in 2002. Timely and adequate funding of the project is critical for JINR to make a strong impact in this area.

3. The Scientific Council urges the JINR Directorate and the Directorates of JINR Laboratories to actively recruit young scientific and technical staff, with highest priority for the operation, maintenance and development of the Institute’s facilities. It is recognized, however, that this could be done only on condition of complete and regular implementation of the Member States’ financial obligations with respect to the Institute.

The Scientific Council asks the JINR Directorate to work out special measures for financial encouragement of young scientists.

1. The Scientific Council takes note of the report prepared by the “Committee of Three” concerning DELSY (Appendix 1) as presented by Professor H. Schopper and of the response made by JINR Director V. Kadyshevsky.

2. The Scientific Council agrees that a synchrotron radiation source would be the basis of a rich scientific programme in various fields from basic research to applications. The Scientific Council is also convinced that JINR has necessary competence to realize such a project.

3. The Scientific Council recommends that the DELSY project be presented within the shortest possible time providing the following information:

a) a complete cost estimate including the cost of the machine complex, buildings, beam lines, instrumentation and auxiliary facilities.

It would be valuable to compare the DELSY implementation and cost with similar projects currently finished or planned in Europe and in the Middle East. The Scientific Council notes the JINR Directorate’s commitment to implement the DELSY project from non-budgetary sources only.

b) commitments from the users’ community including contributions in cash, in kind or manpower.

The forthcoming 2^nd Workshop “JINR Synchrotron Radiation Source: Prospects of Research” (2-5 April 2001) could be used for that purpose.

c) the integration of the DELSY project in the JINR long-term scientific programme, in particular in view of its operation.

Since the DELSY programme is intended to keep JINR attractive in the long term, it would be useful to obtain the opinion of the PACs and the JINR staff concerned if any alternative project fulfilling this objective could be considered.

The Scientific Council takes note of the report “Research programme and structure of the Laboratory of Information Technologies” presented by LIT Director I. Puzynin.

The Scientific Council takes note of the information on the status of the local JINR network and its external channels, and about the steps undertaken by the LIT Directorate towards solving the tasks formulated for this Laboratory at the 88th session of the Scientific Council.

From the point of view of the present-day scientific and technical cooperation, the Scientific Council recommends to consider as important:

– the necessary development of remote access to the experimental facilities, data processing and transfer;

– collaboration on the “Data Grid” and “Grid” projects in Europe and America;

– establishment of a high-quality connection between the JINR network and the scientific networks of the Member States.

The Scientific Council considers the JINR Computing and Networking Infrastructure as a permanently operating basic facility and recommends that the JINR Directorate provide it with adequate special-purpose funding.

1. The Scientific Council takes note of the proposals presented in written form by the Directors of the JINR Laboratories concerning the JINR Scientific Programme based on a three-year plan of activities.

2. Taking into account these proposals and the recommendations of the PACs, the Scientific Council endorses the following priority activities in 2001:

– improvement of the Nuclotron beam extraction system and of external beam lines, operation and development of the Nuclotron, further reduction of electric power consumption for the operation of the Nuclotron accelerator complex;

– modernization of the IBR-2 reactor according to the schedule approved by the Agreement between JINR and the Russian Ministry for Atomic Energy;

– completion of the first stage of the Dubna Radioactive Ion Beams (DRIBs) project, implementation of work on the realization of the second stage of the project;

– construction of IREN, with a realistic schedule and an agreed financial envelope, with a view to completion of its first stage in 2002;

– further development of JINR’s telecommunication links and of JINR’s computing and networking infrastructure;

– theoretical studies in particle physics and quantum field theory, nuclear physics, and condensed matter physics, also with a view to supporting experimental work in these fields;

– continued participation in frontier particle physics experiments, amongst others at accelerators of IHEP (Protvino), CERN, DESY, BNL and FNAL; accelerator system R&D for the LHC (CERN) and linear colliders (TESLA, CLIC);

– continuation of relativistic nuclear interaction studies aimed at searching for manifestations of quark and gluon degrees of freedom in nuclei and asymptotic laws for nuclear matter at high energies, as well as studies of the spin structure of lightest nuclei; experiments at the Synchrophasotron-Nuclotron accelerator complex, also at accelerators of other centres: CERN (SPS, LHC), BNL (RHIC), GSI (SIS), at Uppsala (CELSIUS) and at RIKEN (Japan);

– physical and chemical studies of heavy nuclei in the vicinity of the "stability island" Z=114-116 using the Gas-Filled Recoil and VASSILISSA separators, study of the fusion-fission reactions of weakly excited compound nuclei with the CORSET+DEMON facility, study of the structure of light exotic nuclei and neutron correlations in them using the ACCULINNA, COMBAS and MULTI set-ups, study of the mechanism of nuclear reactions with radioactive ion beams using the FOBOS detector and the high-resolution beam lines;

– development of instrumentation and data acquisition equipment for spectrometers at the IBR-2 reactor; exploitation of the spectrometers for experimental studies of complex structures in biology, pharmacology, material science, etc.;

– development of the JINR Educational Programme, including special-purpose training of specialists for the Member States.

3. The Scientific Council asks the VBLHE Directorate to present at the next session a detailed plan of the Nuclotron development and of the Synchrophasotron outphasing.

 The Scientific Council recommends that the JINR Directorate outline a long-term scientific programme of JINR for the next 10-15 years, including the directions of research and the corresponding new facilities.

The Scientific Council takes note of and concurs with the recommendations made by the PACs at their November 2000 meetings and presented at this session.

Condensed Matter Physics Issues

The Scientific Council notes with satisfaction the agreement between the Russian Ministry for Atomic Energy and JINR allowing for the refurbishment of the IBR-2 reactor. All should be done to fulfill the conditions of this agreement to guarantee finalization of this refurbishment programme.

The new cold moderator at the IBR-2 reactor showed an excellent performance, and the Scientific Council supports the demand to urgently renew the cooling system guaranteeing a reliable supply of cold neutrons.

Furthermore, an instrument development programme was established by the PAC for Condensed Matter Physics. The Scientific Council supports the construction of three spectrometers: a small-angle scattering spectrometer, a reflectometer and a quasielastic spectrometer on the cold source, and also asks the JINR Directorate to support this instrumentation programme.

The situation of the reactor staff, in particular with respect to the refurbishment programme, should be reviewed by the JINR Directorate, as expressed in the PAC recommendations.

Particle Physics Issues

The Scientific Council strongly supports the VBLHE efforts towards the establishment of the Nuclotron as a “user friendly” facility which is operating routinely.

The Scientific Council supports the recommendations of the PAC for Particle Physics on the need for improved coordination of all experiments utilizing polarized beams and targets to make optimal use of the Nuclotron beams.

The Scientific Council supports the PAC recommendations on new scientific projects (STRELA, DELTA-SIGMA, HARP/PS214, PP-singlet). The Scientific Council agrees with the list of the activities suggested for implementation with first priority in 2001-2003 and with the closure of a number of research projects, as detailed in the minutes of the PAC meeting.

Nuclear Physics Issues

The Scientific Council highly appreciates the efforts of the JINR Directorate to secure to the best of their possibilities the funding for the IREN and DRIBs projects in 2001. For the former project, this is essential to maintain an internationally recognized neutron nuclear physics programme at JINR, and for the latter, it will allow the timely start of a world-class facility for radioactive ion beams. The Scientific Council looks forward to a continuous financial support of the JINR Directorate to these projects with highest priority, according to the schedule approved by the Scientific Council.

The Scientific Council appreciates the very satisfactory running of the FLNR cyclotrons in 2000. To perform the top-level, high-priority experiments, the full requested beam-time of 6000 hrs at U400 and 3000 hrs at U400M is necessary for 2001. The focusing of the future programme on the synthesis of superheavy nuclei and on the structure of light exotic nuclei is strongly endorsed.

The Scientific Council welcomes the beam-line upgrading programme of the Phasotron, which will improve significantly the secondary beam quality by the end of 2001.

1. In line with the previous appointments, Ch. Briançon, S. Dubnička and H. Lauter continue to be Chairpersons of the JINR PACs until June 2001.

The election of new Chairpersons of the PACs will take place at the 90th session of the JINR Scientific Council.

2. Upon proposal by the JINR Directorate, the Scientific Council appoints the following new members of the PACs:

PAC for Nuclear Physics

A. Goverdovski (IPPE, Obninsk, Russia)

C. Petitjean (PSI, Villigen, Switzerland)

H. Tietze-Jaensch (FZ, Jülich, Germany)

3. The Scientific Council extends the mandates of the PACs with their present memberships (Appendix 2) for three more years and looks forward to a rotation of PAC members as stipulated by the Regulation for the JINR PACs.

1. The Scientific Council elected by ballot D. Blaschke as Deputy Director of the Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics until the completion of the term of office of the BLTP Director.

2. The Scientific Council agrees with the JINR Directorate’s proposal to postpone the election of Deputy Director of the Laboratory of Particle Physics

3. The Scientific Council confirms the vacancies of the Director and two Deputy Directors of the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics.

The election of the FLNP Directorate will be held at the 90^th session of the Scientific Council.

1. The Scientific Council congratulates Professor G. Zatsepin and Dr V. Gavrin (INR, Moscow) on the awarding of the 2000 B. Pontecorvo Prize, in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the solar neutrino studies by the gallium-germanium method at the Baksan Neutrino Observatory.

2. The Scientific Council approves the Jury's recommendations on the JINR prizes for 2000 (Appendix III).

XII. Awarding of the title “Honorary Doctor of JINR”

The Scientific Council congratulates Professors S. Hofmann, A. Petrosyants and G. Piragino on their being awarded the title “Honorary Doctor of JINR”, in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the advancement of science and education of young scientists.

The Scientific Council followed with interest the scientific reports presented at this session and thanks the speakers V. Gavrin and Yu. Oganessian.

The Scientific Council is greatly impressed with the scientific achievements of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions. The discovery, in the last two years, by FLNR scientists of new elements with Z=114 and 116 has led to direct evidence of the existence of the “stability island” of superheavy elements, predicted by theorists 35 years ago.

The Scientific Council congratulates Professor Yu. Oganessian and his colleagues in GSI (Darmstadt, Germany) – Professors P. Armbruster and G. Münzenberg – on the awarding of the L. Meitner Prize of the European Physical Society for their unique and long-standing work on the synthesis of superheavy elements.

The Scientific Council takes note of the information presented by Professor V. Nokogosyan about ongoing activities concerning the SESAME project in Yerevan.

The 90th session of the Scientific Council will be held on 7-8 June 2001.