Message to issue

The results of the year have been summed up at FLNP

On 29 December, a meeting of the Science and Technology Council was held at FLNP. In the course of the meeting, Director of the Laboratory Valery Shvetsov summed up the results of the year.

He started his speech with the current situation with the IBR-2 reactor that was shut down in October, 2021 because of faulty heat exchangers. The delivery of new heat exchangers was expected in autumn, but their production was delayed. In September, the RosTekhNadzor license expired and repair cannot be carried out without a valid license. All the reactor services have operated well, the required package of documents has been prepared and a new license will be obtained by March. After that, repair can be carried out to replace the heat exchangers and then a smaller set of documents can be submitted to RosTekhNadzor so that the reactor can resume its operation in October.

As Valery Nikolayevich noted, it is very pleasant that an active life has started in the Sector of the new source, there is a significant progress towards the production of a new neutron source. The established contacts with VNIITF (Snezhinsk) give hope for an experimental verification of the only hypothesis proposed by E.P.Shabalin about power fluctuations observed at IBR-2. The fluctuations are caused by oscillations of the fuel rods as a result of the dynamic impact of the pulsed operation mode of the reactor. Without a full understanding of the problem, it is difficult to move towards the production of a new source. Its power will be several times higher than the power of IBR-2 and the detected phenomenon directly depends on the power level. It is necessary to deal with this problem before the final decision to produce a new source.

Further research has been carried out despite the fact that the reactor has not operated. There is a new X-ray diffractometer in the Department of Neutron Investigations of Condensed Matter. "I have to congratulate the IREN team and the colleagues from VBLHEP that work with us to bring the facility up to design parameters," Valery Shvetsov emphasized. Work is underway using the capabilities of IREN in the Sector of Neutron Activation Analysis and Applied Research, as well as in the Department of Nuclear Physics. "Looking to the future, an important point is the production of a prototype ultracold neutron source using the ideas of F.L.Shapiro and A.I.Frank," the speaker noted. "A number of seminars have been held in the Laboratory to discuss this topic and the first version of such a facility using a magnetic flipper. I am very pleased that this activity is supported not only in the Department of Nuclear Physics, but also in the Department of the Spectrometers Complex IBR-2 and the Department of Neutron Investigations of Condensed Matter is also widely involved in the discussion."

The scientific results are numerous, the publication activity has not decreased during the pandemic and the shutdown of the reactor, but has even increased. This suggests that a big step has been taken. Several PhD theses have been defended and as Director of the Laboratory noted, doctoral theses have also been defended that is particularly pleasing.

In conclusion, Valery Shvetsov thanked the staff members of the Laboratory for their fruitful work, the level of which has not diminished. He reminded that 2022 is the year of the 90th anniversary of the publication of James Chadwick's paper in which he had discovered the neutron. "We will celebrate this event and see off the passing year. I wish everyone good health, family happiness, prosperity and successful work in the new year!"

Olga TARANTINA