The weekly nuclear industry newspaper “Strana Rosatom”, the main corporate publication of the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom “Rosatom”, has published an interview with JINR Director Academician Grigory Trubnikov, in which he discussed JINR achievements and flagship projects and the future scientific plans of JINR.

Grigory Trubnikov. Photo: Strana Rosatom

On 13 March, the Government of Russia approved a plan of events for the Year of Science and Technology. The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research is responsible for two events in this program: the launch of the Baikal-GVD neutrino telescope and the first full-cycle run at extracted beams of the NICA complex. We had a conversation with JINR Director Grigory Trubnikov about the Institute’s projects, plans for the future, and the involvement of young people in science.

– This year, JINR turned 65. What are the main achievements of the Institute over the last 10-15 years?

– First of all, the research infrastructure of the Institute has been strengthened. We have a new information and computing complex that combines a supercomputer and various systems for keeping and processing data, cloud computing, etc. With this complex, we process a quarter of all the events recorded in the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Globally, this is a really huge amount. Our supercomputer cluster was ranked 22nd in the world’s top 500 most efficient and fastest data processing systems in November 2020.

Our second achievement is the Baikal Neutrino Telescope Baikal-GVD. Its construction started back in the 1980s, and we, together with the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, rapidly started developing the project in 2012-2013. Over the past six years, this telescope has expanded by about 20 times. This is significant because increasing the volume of the telescope gives an increase in the volume of statistics: the larger its effective volume, the more events can be detected, the more new events we discover connected with cosmic neutrinos.

We are proud of the Superheavy Element Factory. In 2018, we placed it into operation; in 2019, we operated all the regimes; and in 2020, we detected twice as many events in a month of operation as we had detected in the previous eight years. No experimental complex in the world has such scientific capacity. I believe that the Japanese, Americans, and Germans will not be able to catch up with us for about fifteen years.

And, of course, our pride is the NICA accelerator complex. Over the past 15 years, this is probably the most remarkable project in the Institute’s history. This complex is comparable to a new institute in terms of its scale – in the foreseeable future, about 2,000 employees will work there. Let me remind you that a research institute employs 300-600 people on average. Nothing like this has been created in Russia for probably forty years since the late 1970s and early 1980s. This is a huge budget and the scale of the construction, over 30,000 m2, is a gigantic complex of buildings. Everything is up-to-date – energy-efficient technology, high-temperature superconductivity, the most powerful computer cluster for such projects in the world. This project has rocked up everything in our country: from the industry and technology to the human resources component. By the way, the average age of our employees is 45, and we now have a lot of young people joining us.

– How do you manage to attract young scientists?

– For a talented, creative person, the main thing is not even the salary, the main thing is an ambitious, large task in which a scientist has a chance to be on top of the world. Many people are attracted by a unique international environment, which has been established at JINR. Moreover, everything is within a walking distance in Dubna: sports, culture, educational institutions, which also creates a certain comfort. It is a beautiful and environmentally friendly place: the Volga river, forest, beautiful nature. There are theatres, clubs, and all kinds of activities, modern libraries, choir studios. There is plenty of opportunities for sports: Olympic swimming pool, a couple of dozens of sections, Olympic reserve schools. There are also excellent schools and kindergartens. And as an institution, our task is not only to attract people but also to offer them comfortable conditions: accommodation, salary, etc.

– The Year of Science and Technology has started, what does it mean for the Institute? Are there any new projects coming up?

– We have dedicated the Year of Science and Technology to two big events at JINR. The first was the launch of the Baikal Neutrino Telescope, the largest in the Northern hemisphere. It was held on 13 March in Irkutsk. The second big event will be the launch of the second stage of the NICA complex. We hope to carry it out in November or December. The second stage is a new large chain of superconducting accelerators in the complex and extracted beams of heavy ions of high energies.

During the Year of Science and Technology, we will actively promote ourselves as a missionary of international scientific and technological cooperation. In my opinion, JINR is one of the best examples of international cooperation in Russia. There are 1,200 researchers working at the Institute, half being international citizens. Officially, we have 18 Member States and six Associate Members. The Institute cooperates with 60 countries; JINR has more than 900 partners – these are universities, institutes, and scientific centres. By the way, four countries have already joined the Baikal project: Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia. And I am sure that in the next two or three years, several more countries will join the construction and operation of the telescope. Science brings nations together: this is one of the key missions we will be especially promoting this year.

– What is the main task of the Baikal-GVD project?

– Any large experimental installation has two scientific components. The first is the fundamental aspect and the second one is applied. In terms of fundamental issues, this telescope manages to be the best in capturing neutrinos coming from outer space, which carry information about the structure of the Universe. Analyzing the data about these particles, we can make predictions about the evolution of both the Solar System and our Milky Way galaxy, and the universe as a whole. In addition, we use this telescope to record not only neutrinos from the distant corners of the Universe but also neutrinos and other charged particles coming to us from the centre and lithosphere of the Earth. These particles can tell us a lot about the structure of our planet, what processes occur inside it.

And in terms of applied importance, the telescope is a monitor of the Baikal’s ecological condition, its bio-diversity, water temperature, chemical composition, algae activity, etc. The telescope also picks up various kinds of seismic activity in the vicinity of Baikal and Irkutsk: seismic waves, vibrations of the Earth’s crust, etc. Firstly, it provides more information about earthquakes and other natural disasters, and secondly, it allows making forecasts.

– Tell us about JINR’s plans.

– Our main task is to launch the NICA Collider in two years and start the first experimental measurements and research on it. Another ambitious goal is to search for new superheavy elements, filling in the eighth, so far empty, period of the Mendeleev table with new elements. In the next five to ten years, we will be looking for new elements with numbers 119, 120, 121. Let me remind you that 13 new elements have been discovered over the past 50 years. Finding new elements is an extraordinarily difficult task. Undoubtedly, we will be more engaged in life sciences. JINR is going to build an international innovation centre in the fields of nuclear technology. There will be two or three completely unique, by world standards, applied machines for testing technologies in the fields of nuclear medicine, namely the production of radiopharmaceuticals and treatment of oncological diseases using beams of charged particles in beam therapy.

– Are there experiments in this area now?

– Yes, there are some experiments. Dubna was the first place in Russia where a proton therapy centre opened. It happened in 1967. Over the past 10-15 years, more than 1,000 people have been treated with the proton accelerator. We want to build two or three new accelerators in the next few years, compact facilities for work in the fields of radiation biology/radiobiology. This will be made not only for cancer treatment but also for research into neurodegenerative processes and the effects of radiation on aging processes and diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, etc.