Meridians of cooperation

JINR hosted Rosatom School - IAEA

The Regional School on operation and use of research reactors was held from 27 May to 7 June in Moscow, Obninsk and Dubna. Together with the organizers, 17 representatives from Africa, South America and the CIS participated in it. Representatives of the IAEA, Rosatom State Corporation, Tomsk Polytechnic University, MEPhI and the Obninsk branch of the L.Ya.Karpov Research Institute of Physics and Chemistry spoke to the participants in person and online.

Technical tours for School participants were held at the A.F.Tsyb Medical Radiological Research Centre (Obninsk), at the research reactor of the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, at JINR - at the basic facilities of FLNP, FLNR and VBLHEP and virtually - at the TPU research reactor.

From lectures by FLNP and VBLHEP staff, School participants learned about the difference between stationary and pulsed reactors, reactors as neutron sources, portable neutron sources, the use of neutron activation analysis for environmental research and the investigation of cultural heritage sites.

"Such a regular IAEA school on research reactors is held for the second time in the Russian Federation," Director for International Cooperation at the Rosatom Technical Academy V.E.Mazepov explains. "It is organized by our Academy jointly with the IAEA. Representatives from 14 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America participate in it. The purpose of the event is, first of all, to demonstrate Russian technologies and to introduce them to colleagues from other countries, to show opportunities for training, development, education and further cooperation with the Russian Federation.

This year, the School was held in several places: its participants visited a reactor facility in Moscow, visited Obninsk and it ended in Dubna. I think that everything goes well - serious lectures were given, wonderful technical tours were carried out, I want to rate everything very highly. The participants express genuine interest, we hope to receive feedback from them at the end, but their desire to continue cooperating with Russian organizations, with Rosatom, is already visible. I would like to thank the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research for the opportunity to listen to excellent lectures on research areas and to visit unique research facilities that have no analogues in the world, including a technical tour of the NICA collider under construction. The School participants shared their impressions of visiting the Institute's laboratories.

Dauren Nugumanov (Institute of Nuclear Physics, Almaty, Kazakhstan):
- I am the chief engineer of the BWR reactor, I participate in this School to learn more about the facilities, to exchange experiences, to listen to specialists. I am very pleased with the School, I have learned a lot of new things for myself - both theoretically and a little practical, I have expanded my circle of acquaintances that I will use in the future to meet issues and to establish contacts in the nuclear industry.

Alassane Traore (University of Dakar, Senegal):
- I teach nuclear physics at the university. We have heard about Russia's successes in physics and, in particular, nuclear physics and its applications and this School is the first opportunity for me to join it. We have sent five students to study nuclear physics and its applications in oil and gas production at MEPhI and St. Petersburg. Some of them already completed their studies two years ago and started working. We are going to construct a modular research reactor in Senegal with the help of the IAEA and Rosatom and carry out research on it. I have learned about Dubna and JINR from newspapers and my first impressions are very positive. I am very happy that I am participating in this School and can learn something new, thank you for organizing it. This is the best place to study nuclear physics and prepare for our paper at home.

Jihad Sahnoun (National Centre for Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology CNESTEN, Morocco):
- As for my impressions of the School, everyone here was very friendly with us, they showed us the facilities, told us everything they knew, everything that interested us. This is a very useful school. Since I work as an operator at a reactor, this knowledge will help me in the future.

Baurzhan Urkinbaev (Institute of Nuclear Physics, Uzbekistan):
- I am an operator of the Research Reactor Control Service. This is my first time in Dubna. My brother studied in Moscow, at MEPhI, during the Soviet era and afterwards, lived and worked in Dubna for some time. I know that our compatriots work at JINR, I have heard of Dubna, but I saw everything for the first time. I don't have enough vocabulary to convey all my impressions: the Institute is wonderful, the city is nice and clean. Thank you for this School!

Olga TARANTINA,
translation by Yury KOPACH and Wael BADAWY,
photo by Elena PUZYNINA