At the PAC meeting

Denes Nagy: "Discussion was lively and fruitful"

Having freed himself after participating in the 137th session of the Scientific Council, Chairman of the PAC for Condensed Matter Physics Professor Denes Nagy summarized the results of the 60th meeting of the PAC held on 27 January.

The three main reports of the meeting were dedicated to the reactor, its peculiarities, its spectrometers. All three reports caused questions and discussions. Were they fruitful, in your opinion?

-With great interest, we listened to reports "On the current status of IBR-2 as part of the preparation of the reactor for the launch" by Egor Lychagin, "Development of a mathematical model of the dynamics of pulsed fast reactors: the results and plans" by Maxim Bulavin and "Spectrometers complex of the IBR-2 reactor: current status and the recent developments" by Denis Kozlenko. It is completely obvious that such extremely substantial reports cause a lively discussion, maybe this time, even more lively than usual. It was certainly fruitful, for sure.

Directorate was actively engaged in the meeting from its first minute. Was there a complete understanding?

- Yes, as always. PAC - that is advisory authorities the recommendations of which can be completely or partially adopted and may not be adopted by JINR Directorate (and by Directorates of Laboratories).

Professor Ravi Kumar

The membership of the PAC has been renewed. How do you estimate the activity of its new member?

- As a new member, we welcomed Professor Ravi Kumar from India. He immediately took a very active part in the discussions and made the most positive contribution to the success of our meeting. Considering that at the same time, the 137th session of the Scientific Council was also held, I am glad to add that another member, Professor Sakin Dzhabarov from Baku, Azerbaijan, joined the PAC for Condensed Matter Physics for three years.

What impressions did you have from the scientific reports and papers of young scientists?

- This time, we had 14 reports represented as electronic posters that could be viewed with the help of a Zoom "rest room", both by full-time and remote participants. 80 minutes allocated for this activity turned out to be not quite sufficient time interval; I must admit that I missed two or three reports. I enjoyed some posters that were really very good from the point of view of both scientific content and the manner of presentation. The number of slides in the report should not exceed 5. Unfortunately, we had participants that had 15 or even more slides, so their electronic posters could not be represented in reasonable time frames. Next time, we will limit the number of posters to about 6; preliminary selection should be carried out by Laboratories. From the recommendations of the 60th meeting of the PAC for Condensed Matter Physics:

• The PAC took note of information on the completion of repair work on IBR 2 and on obtaining a license to resume the operation of the reactor, represented by E.Lychagin. The PAC supports the plans and efforts of FLNP Directorate to resume regular cycles for users, as well as efforts to extend the operation of the reactor with high operational parameters due to the load of new fuel.
  The PAC recommends to use the rest of the time for resumption of regular cycles to intensify the work with potential users in order to attract the maximum number of researchers in JINR, primarily, from the Member States.
• The PAC recommends to keep simulating the dynamics of pulsed fast reactors and considers this work necessary both for the operation of IBR-2 and for the development of the new neutron source in JINR.
• The PAC welcomes the intention of FLNP to carry out further development of the conceptual project of the advanced pulsed reactor; to develop a mathematical model of the dynamics of the reactor and to estimate the parameters of stable and reliable operation of both IBR-2 and a new pulsed high-flux reactor; to keep developing a scientific programme for the new neutron source and the concept of its instrumentation; to start developing new advanced devices and technologies for cryogenic moderators.

Olga Tarantina,
Photo by Igor Lapenko