Experts discussed a future JINR’s neutron source and current projects at the 46th meeting of the Programme Advisory Committee for Condensed Matter Physics which was held on 19-20 June 2017.

After the meeting opening, all participants honored the memory of Chairman of the PAC CMP, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova Valeriu Kantser who untimely passed away. The PAC programme traditionally began with reports on the implementation of the recommendations of the previous PAC meeting and recent resolutions of the JINR Scientific Council and the Committee of Plenipotentiaries. After that, FLNP Chief Engineer A.V. Vinogradov presented information about the preparation of a concept for the JINR’s new neutron source.

A report of D.P. Kozlenko (FLNP) devoted to the main results obtained over the recent three years of implementation of the theme “Investigations of Condensed Matter by Modern Neutron Scattering Methods” raised big interest of the PAC CMP participants.

PAC CMP Chairman, Professor Dénes Lajos Nagy (Hungary) commented on the milestones of the PAC. Speaking about the development of the new neutron source, he emphasized that this is primarily a scientific task, including the question of how it will integrate into the European and global landscape of neutron sources. This task should be solved with consideration of other neutron sources being established worldwide (ESS, PIK, ISIS) which most probably will be more powerful, that is why features and benefits of a possible new JINR‘s neutron source need to be determined. This requires developing of so-called White paper containing a scientific component that will clarify what are the scientific tasks on solution of which the new source will be aimed at, if the project is implemented.

Speaking of current work, D. Nagy noted that all proposals on the extension of research themes and projects were supported by the PAC CMP. D. Nagy noted that experts of the Committee highly appreciate the level of scientific reports and poster presentations by LRB young scientists, presented at this PAC meeting. The poster “Neurochemical alterations in central nervous system of rodents after exposure to different radiation modalities” by K. Belokopytova was selected as the best poster at the session. The PAC also noted two other high-quality posters: “Structure induction and repair of DNA doublestrand breaks in hippocampal neurons of mice of different age after exposure to ⁶⁰Co γ-rays in vivo and in vitro” by R. Kozhina and “Microfossils in carbonaceous meteorites” by A. Ryumin.

On article of Olga Tarantina, JINR Weekly Newspaper