Nuclear technology: Serbia chooses Russia
Last week, at first glance, an ordinary event took place in the life of the world scientific community, which in fact once again showed Serbia’s commitment to Russia. In this case, the conversation is about science, and high, academic science.
The Days of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna, Russia), one of the recognized leaders in this industry in the world, took place in Belgrade. This event can be called politically significant - despite significant pressure from the West, Serbia is increasingly moving towards becoming a full member of this international institution based in the Moscow region.
And this is by no means a matter of formality, because we are talking not only about new opportunities, but also about the financial side - including fees for participation in the world's largest projects and the use of the unique technical base of the institute.
Although Serbia officially established cooperation with the institute in November 1994 and became an associate member in April 2007, its status has remained unchanged until now. And at the end of last year, a Roadmap was signed for its accession to full members of the organization, which includes 18 main and 6 associated member countries.
Belgrade already has an agreement with the European nuclear center CERN, but Serbian scientists advocate closer cooperation with JINR, which is not surprising - this institute is a recognized world leader in the study of superheavy elements, which has given the world several new elements of the periodic table.
It is here that research in the field of radiation biology is carried out, and even the NICA collider, which has no analogues in the world, is being built. The organization's budget in 2019 was almost $230 million.
For two days at the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Serbia, scientists and officials from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development communicated with colleagues from Russia. The large Dubna delegation, headed by JINR Vice-Director Professor M.G. Itkis, included the heads of the leading laboratories and centers of the institute.
The conference was attended by senior officials in the field of science and education of the Balkan country, in particular, the head of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Mladen Sarcevic, spoke at the plenary session.
“The Joint Institute is one of the largest research centers in the world in the fields of particle physics, nuclear physics and radiation biology. The Republic of Serbia cooperates in the field of science and research with institutions around the world, including CERN, so that our researchers can participate in experiments in various fields, which is very important for the development of their careers. Therefore, it is important for us to expand and strengthen cooperation with Dubna,” he said.
Deputy Director of the Dubna Institute Mikhail Itkis spoke about the state of cooperation with Serbian colleagues. Thus, currently four Serbian research organizations are working as part of international groups on twelve projects. The projects are being implemented by employees of the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Physics on the basis of an accelerator built with the help of Dubna scientists, the Physics Institute of the University of Belgrade and the University of Novi Sad. In addition, student exchanges and training of young researchers from several scientific and educational institutions in Serbia are carried out.
A number of commercial structures in Serbia also have a great interest in mutually beneficial work: on the basis of accelerators at JINR, they can create projects that solve fairly everyday problems, for example, in the field of medicine or technology, which can later be implemented in their own country.
Specially for “PolitNavigator”, JINR Vice-Director Professor Mikhail Itkis gave a short interview.
– Mikhail Grigorievich, JINR has a fairly large number of partners, including among European countries. Why is such close attention being paid to Serbia now?
M.I.: We want to improve our cooperation and strengthen it. It has been between us for a long time, at least for the last 30 years. This is important for us, but it is no less important for Serbian science, because our institute is multifunctional, works in different directions, it is not a mono-institute like CERN, which they also joined. Therefore, our main task, which coincides with the desire of Serbian scientists, is for the country to join the ranks of full members of JINR and be able, in cooperation with us, to develop its science and actively participate in world-class research.
In addition, there are also purely political aspects - and they are very important. Since we are kindred Slavic peoples, partners and friends, we must look to the future together. And science is precisely what looks into the future, bypassing politics.
– In what areas is the most intensive cooperation with Serbia being implemented?
M.I.: First of all, we want serious science to be revived at the Vinca Institute, because we once started with them, and helped them a lot in the early 90s. Based on the Tesla accelerator installation, which was created with the help of JINR, they are already getting concrete results, and we want them to fully implement this project.
-There is a lot of talk in Serbia about the construction of a new nuclear center - what kind of participation does Dubna plan in it if this project begins to be implemented?
M.I.: I think that the key figures here will be our experts in the field of creating accelerator technology. Since it is extremely important to correctly determine the parameters of the future accelerator center - this is the main task, then there is simply implementation and orders. In this regard, JINR can greatly help in this regard.
– We are talking about very difficult issues for the average person, and not everyone can understand why spend a lot of money on all these colliders, accelerators, and generally on theoretical, “pure” science... what does this give the country in the end?
M.I.: Well, look for yourself: in the same Dubna, in the Flerov laboratory (Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions - ed.) there are small particle accelerators that produce a track membrane: we take a polymer film and “bombard” it with ions at the accelerator, which pierce right through it. What is it for? China is actively buying it, we produce blood plasmapheresis from it - this is at the same time dividing it into fractions - plasma and others, and purifying it. And medicine already needs this. This is the technology of the future! Or you can give an example of accelerators for proton therapy of oncological diseases - we actively participated in the creation of such a center in Dimitrovgrad. After all, with the help of charged particles you can kill cancer cells in the brain, and at the same time do without surgery.
Next are lithium-ion batteries, which are used everywhere today. In our neutron laboratory, work is underway to improve their parameters - and not by percentages, but by several times. And this will be a completely new word in this technology. As you can see, what our institute does is not only “pure science”, but also large-scale applied developments.
This is a scientific and technological revolution; it occurs not only in the IT sphere, but also in applied physics. Accordingly, if a country has the conditions for this kind of research, it will receive considerable economic benefits.
The director of the Physics Laboratory of the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Physics shared his vision of the situation with the correspondent of our portal. Peter Belichev.
“This conference is dedicated to introducing JINR specialists to Serbian colleagues, including from our institute, in order to give our scientists and our companies the opportunity to work on the basis of the infrastructure of the Dubna institute. We have an agreement with CERN, but I am directly responsible for cooperation with JINR. It is important that the current conference is organized with the large participation of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia, which in this case acts as a buffer between the Russian institute and companies in our country engaged in accelerator technologies. We have more than 20 such enterprises, and we would like this interaction to be well organized.
Of course, Serbia’s entry into the ranks of full members of JINR does not depend on us; this is a matter for our government, and in particular, the Ministry of Education, but we would really like this. There is a road map, and it is possible that in 2-3 years Serbia will move from associate membership to full membership.
At the same time, there is also an economic benefit for our country. It all depends on how many companies will carry out serious developments, primarily applied ones. These are two lines - one scientific, and our specialists will be able to work in Dubna at their accelerators, make discoveries and research. The other is applied, commercial, for our companies that work in this industry. That’s why it’s so important for us that our colleagues from JINR are here now.”
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