I. General considerations

1. The Scientific Council takes note of the information presented by JINR Director V. Kadyshevsky concerning the decisions taken by the JINR Committee of Plenipotentiaries (CP) at its March 2001 meeting, in particular:

– the approval of the JINR Directorate’s activity on implementing the reform programme of the Institute;

– the approval of the JINR Topical Plan of Research and International Cooperation for 2001 based on the recommendations of the Scientific Council and the PACs;

– the extension, until 1 January 2006, of the term of office of the members of the JINR Directorate: V. Kadyshevsky, A. Sissakian, Ts. Vylov and V. Zhabitsky;

– the election of I. Antoniou (ISIPC, Brussels, Belgium) and G. van Middelkoop (NIKHEF, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) as members of the JINR Scientific Council, starting the rotation of the Scientific Council members.

2. On 26 March 2001 the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research celebrated its 45th birthday. The Scientific Council congratulates the international staff of JINR on their outstanding scientific achievements and wishes them much success in the future.

3. On the occasion of this 90th session, the members of the Scientific Council wish to reiterate their appreciation of the constructive atmosphere prevailing at the Council sessions. The positive working mode plays an important role in furthering the international ties of JINR and in strengthening its scientific mission. It also enables the Scientific Council members to act as “ambassadors” of JINR’s case within the international scientific community.

• The Scientific Council wishes the present JINR Directorate further successful leadership of this international centre, in continuing the important programme of reforms initiated several years ago.

1. The Scientific Council takes note of the report "Status of development of the JINR basic facilities" presented by JINR Chief Engineer I. Meshkov.

2. The Scientific Council takes note of the report "Status of the DRIBs project" presented by FLNR Scientific Leader Yu. Oganessian.

• The Scientific Council is pleased with the completion of the production target, the separator, the ECR-source for radioactive beams, and of the successful transport of ⁶He ions into the transport gallery at FLNR, which is an important milestone in the realization of the DRIBs project.

• The preparation of the first experiments is proceeding intensively. To timely start the experiments, being prepared by the collaborations, Phase I of DRIBs – production of light radioactive ion beams – should be completed in 2001 and Phase II – acceleration of fission fragments – in 2002. The Scientific Council supports this time schedule with high priority.

3. The Scientific Council takes note of the “Plan of the Nuclotron development and of the Synchrophasotron outphasing” presented by VBLHE Chief Researcher I. Issinsky.

• The Scientific Council recognizes the significant progress which was achieved in 1999-2001 in the improvement of the Nuclotron’s performance and beam parameters. The first stage of the work on beam extraction from the Nuclotron has been accomplished and experiments with extracted beam have started. The upgraded cryogenic supply system has provided the conditions necessary for long-duration runs of this facility.

• Considering the progress in reaching the operational modes for some of the Nuclotron systems, the Scientific Council recommends that the VBLHE Directorate provide the users with at least 2000 hours of running time per year for physics experiments. The Scientific Council endorses the VBLHE plan for development of the Nuclotron accelerator complex for the years 2002-2008, including the production of polarized beams, and recommends that the JINR Directorate secure the necessary funding for this activity.

• The Scientific Council recommends that the VBLHE Directorate concentrate resources on solving the first-priority tasks in the development of the Laboratory’s accelerator complex, and on the completion, within the shortest possible time, of the transition of all physics experiments, including those with polarized beams, from the Synchrophasotron to the Nuclotron. The Scientific Council invites the PACs and BLTP to evaluate the potentialities of polarized physics at the Nuclotron.

• The Scientific Council endorses phasing out the Synchrophasotron in 2003 and asks the JINR Directorate to consider this plan.

4. The Scientific Council notes the progress in the IBR-2 refurbishment, but at the same time expresses concern about the lack of planned funding for this project. The Scientific Council considers the exploitation of cold neutrons to be of great interest for JINR. It requests the PAC for Condensed Matter Physics to follow up this issue as a priority matter, and to work with the users community and the FLNP Directorate towards the implementation of a realistic cold neutron programme.

5. The Scientific Council considers significant the progress of the IREN project as a result of the effort taken by the JINR Directorate to concentrate manpower on this important activity. The new department organized at LPP for the IREN project is working efficiently, and the involvement of the LPP infrastructure in this activity is essential in the realization of the IREN linac LUE-200.

6. The Scientific Council wishes to be informed about the ongoing restructuring of the Laboratory of Information Technologies.

1. The Scientific Council was informed by Chief Engineer I. Meshkov about the new concept for the DELSY project which is proposed to be realized in three phases. As a partial response to the recommendations of the 89^th session of the Scientific Council, the Conceptual Design Report of Phase 1 (Free-Electron Lasers) was distributed at this session. The Scientific Council takes note of this Report.

2. The outcome of the 2nd International Workshop “JINR Synchrotron Radiation Source: Prospects of Research”, held in Dubna on 2-5 April 2001, demonstrates an increase in the number of potential users for this facility.

The Scientific Council takes note of and concurs with the recommendations made by the PACs at their April 2001 meetings and presented by their Chairpersons.

Particle Physics Issues

• The Scientific Council notes the progress in establishing the Nuclotron as a “user friendly” facility which is operating routinely. At the same time, progress in this direction must be accelerated to make this facility fully operational for the international community waiting to use it.

• The Scientific Council endorses the recommendations of the PAC for Particle Physics on the execution of the new scientific projects, as detailed in the PAC Minutes.

• The Scientific Council highly appreciates the activity of BLTP scientists towards giving theoretical support to the ALICE, ATLAS, and CMS experiments.

• The Scientific Council applauds the new recent results on the synthesis of element 116 at FLNR. They are the first and direct experimental evidence of the existence of the “island of stability” of superheavy elements.

• The ongoing programme on the synthesis of superheavy elements is universally appreciated. The Scientific Council considers it of high priority in the Scientific Programme of JINR.

• The Scientific Council notes that the successful production, separation, and injection of ⁶He into the beam-transport gallery are decisive steps in Phase I of the DRIBs project. The timely realization of Phases I and II of this project is essential for the competitiveness of the Flerov Laboratory in this field. To ensure the continuation and rapid progress of DRIBs, adequate resources should be provided immediately.

• The Scientific Council takes note of the JINR-Kurchatov Institute joint project of separation of rare stable isotopes in large amount, using the Ion Cyclotron Resonance method. The Scientific Council welcomes the further study of this interesting project in view of its implementation at JINR.

• The Scientific Council is pleased to note that, since the previous session, progress has been achieved in the implementation of the IREN project, despite continuing financial difficulties. The minimal version of the IREN project imposed by the financial situation must be considered only as a temporary solution to the full-scale project essential to the community of specialists working in this domain. As already emphasized at the 89^th Scientific Council session, the appropriate funding of IREN at the requested level for 2001 is crucial.

• The Scientific Council notes that the steps presented by the Laboratory of Information Technologies to the PAC for Nuclear Physics should improve the external connection to the Russian network considerably. Because the internal JINR network situation is also becoming critical, urgent measures are needed to preserve its proper operation.

The Scientific Council strongly supports the ongoing project to refurbish and renew the IBR-2 reactor, the cold moderator, and the instrumentation on the cold source:

– JINR’s obligations to fulfil the agreement with the Ministry of Atomic Energy must be respected to guarantee that the refurbishment of the IBR-2 reactor itself progresses according to schedule. The finite lifetime of the reactor’s essential components does not allow a delay in the schedule.

– The performance of the actual cold moderator leads to the project of the construction of a new cold moderator system, whose temperature can be optimized for specific spectrometers. The gain at a spectrometer is an optimization of intensity, enhanced resolution, the shift to low-momentum transfer or the shift to low-energy transfer. Due to the near end of the lifetime of the actual cold source it is necessary to investigate urgently when a new cold source or cold source system can be installed.

– A detailed plan for the spectrometers will be developed. The core recommendation for the construction of a small-angle scattering spectrometer, a reflectometer, and an inelastic scattering spectrometer should be completed to take advantage of the wider applicability of the new cold moderator system.

– The manufacture of detectors, in particular multidetectors, neutron guides, and neutron optical elements, has to be supported further to complete the concept of highly efficient spectrometers on a high-flux neutron source.

– It is again noted that the reactor refurbishment programme also requires measures concerning the reactor staff to ensure successful refurbishment and successful performance of the IBR-2 reactor after the restart as advised in previous recommendations of the PAC for Condensed Matter Physics.

1. Upon proposal by the JINR Directorate, the Scientific Council appoints the following Chairpersons of the PACs for a term of one year:
    T. Hallman (BNL, Upton, USA) – PAC for Particle Physics,
    N. Rowley (IReS, Strasbourg, France) – PAC for Nuclear Physics,
    The Council also re-appoints H. Lauter as Chairperson of the PAC for Condensed Matter Physics for a term of one year.

2. The Scientific Council thanks Professors Ch. Briancon and S. Dubnicka for their highly efficient and successful work as Chairperson of the PAC for Nuclear Physics and Chairperson of the PAC for Particle Physics, respectively.

The Scientific Council congratulates Professors G.J. Deutsch, S. Ozaki, and G. Trilling on being awarded the title “Honorary Doctor of JINR", in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the advancement of science and the education of young scientists.

The Scientific Council followed with interest the scientific reports:
– ”Phenomenon of direct CP violation" presented by V. Kekelidze,
– “Results of the DELPHI experiment at LEP" presented by A. Olshevski,
– “Current experiments using polarized beams of the JINR VBLHE accelerator complex” presented by F. Lehar.

The Council thanks the speakers for their informative presentations.

1. The Scientific Council unanimously elects by ballot:
    A. Belushkin as Director of the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics for a term of five years,
    R. Lednicky as Deputy Director of the Laboratory of Particle Physics for a term of five years.

2. The Scientific Council thanks Professor V. Aksenov for his successful work during 10 years as Director of the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, and recognizes his outstanding contribution to the development of this Laboratory, its world-class IBR-2 reactor, and the scientific research in neutron-aided nuclear physics and condensed matter physics.

3. According to the Regulation in force, the Scientific Council announces the vacancies of Directors at VBLHE, FLNR, and LPP.

The election for these positions shall be held at the 91st session of the Scientific Council.

IX.  Next session of the Scientific Council
The 91st session of the Scientific Council will be held on 17-18 January 2002.

V. Kadyshevsky
Chairman of the JINR Scientific Council