The regular, this year’s second meeting of the JINR Science and Technology Council was held on 19 April 2017 in the International Conference Hall under the chairmanship of R.V. Jolos. It was opened by information of JINR Director, Academician V.A. Matveev, who commented on the milestones of the JINR Finance Committee and the JINR Committee of Plenipotentiaries, which were held in March this year.

Plans for modernization of the JINR engineering infrastructure were the objective of the report of JINR Chief Engineer B.N. Gikal who was elected at the session of the Committee of Plenipotentiaries. He noted that these plans are largely associated with implementation of new major projects outlined by the Seven-Year Plan for the Development of JINR and reconstruction of a number of objects of the engineering infrastructure; he formulated the major directions of the appropriate activities in the JINR laboratories. In particular, the VBLHEP planned upgrading of power supply systems and heating systems, installation of new cooling systems based on fan cooling towers, cryogenic systems for liquid helium and nitrogen production, and reconstruction of heat supply and water supply systems. The FLNR plans to complete the construction of the experimental hall of the Factory of superheavy elements, to reconstruct the building of the U-400 cyclotron, and to build an assembly hall. The DLNP plans to replace the Phasotron in the Medico-Technical Complex of the DLNP JINR with a cyclotron which will be manufactured in China upon the project developed by specialists of our Institute. Respectively for 2017 – 2023 the decommissioning of the Phasotron is planned. The major overhaul of the radiochemical laboratories of the 2nd and the 3rd classes, as well as the storages of nuclear materials and radioactive substances and the radioactive waste storage was estimated to the current seven-year period. The main tasks of the FLNP associated with ensuring reliable operation of the IBR-2 reactor, modernization of panels of the reactor power supply system, reconstruction of the recycling water supply system of the reactor, reconstruction of technological systems and equipment of experimental halls of the IREN facility, development and commissioning of cryogenic moderators of central areas for a number of neutron beams. The LIT plans to develop network communication and telecommunication channels with upgrade to 100 Gbps on the external channel and the local JINR network for the NICA experiment. Modern water cooling systems with chillers, hot and cold air ventilation systems, uninterruptible power supply systems are required for reliable operation of the computing complex. The total electric power capacity will be 2.5 MW by 2023.

The speaker also described the prospects of development of the JINR engineering infrastructure and tasks of the related departments. In the fields of power supply, reconstruction of the GPP1 and GPP2 main stepdown substations lies ahead of the JINR Chief Power Engineer’s Department. The five year plan for heat supply is to completely automate boilers of the Vostochnaya boiler-house in accordance with the requirements of Rostechnadzor; to replace most of the heat and water networks at the DLNP site; to replace metering units of the both boiler-houses; to organize a separate heat metering for major main circuits and large consumers with a single control point. A range of work on water supply and sewer systems, along with solution of current operational tasks is also planned. It is planned to transfer ownership of the city sewer network and structures to municipal property.

Further on, B.N. Gikal spoke about the ongoing and planned work on other JINR services – the Technical Communication Service (completing of the telephony establishing of the automatic telephone station #6), the Radioactive and Fissile Materials Department, the Radiation Safety Department and the Civil Defence Headquarters.

Questions to the speaker and comments on the report demonstrated intense interest of STC members in the presented materials illustrating important component of the complex of measures on implementation of the Seven-Year Plan for the Development of JINR.

JINR Deputy Director B.Yu. Sharkov reported on the working group on the JINR development strategy elaboration, its status, forming and scope of work. A year ago, at the STC meeting, commenting on the results of the general discussion at the 119th session of the JINR Scientific Council, V. A. Matveev noted that almost every second speech of the session participants expressed an urgent need to develop a long-term strategy for the development of JINR. Based on the decision of the JINR Scientific Council, the order on establishment of a working group on elaboration of the JINR strategic development program until 2030 was prepared and signed. Under this order the question was submitted for the next STC meeting.

This topic provoked an animated discussion, which was attended by V.N. Shvetsov, V.D. Kekelidze, D.V. Peshekhonov, M.G. Itkis, S.N. Dmitriev, I.A. Savin, V.V. Korenkov, Yu.Ts. Oganessian, S.N. Nedelko I.N. Meshkov, A.S. Sorin, V.A. Matveev. Discussing the concept of elaboration of the JINR long-term development strategy proposed by B.Yu. Shirkov, participants of the discussion noted the need to focus primarily on defying perspective areas of research and formation of the concept of development of JINR as an international intergovernmental organization.

Evgeny Molchanov, JINR weekly newspaper