In December, it will be 13 years since signing of the Governmental Decree #781 on the establishment of the Special Economic Zone “Dubna”. Nowadays, 148 companies are the residents of SEZ. Some of them represent scientific developments of the Joint Institute.

The “Intergraphics” LLC to school students, students and teachers

At the beginning of the 2000s, there were no tags or gadgets. A problem emerged: the role of science and high technologies in the society’s life is rising while the interest of the youth in science is weakening. Specialists of the world largest scientific centres – namely, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in the USA, and CERN in Europe – found the solution to the problem in development of new educational programmes on modern science to teachers, school students and students of universities. Leaders of JINR V.G. Kadyshevsky and A.N. Sissakian and BNL Leaders John Marburger and Satoshi Ozaki set the task to work out new educational programmes using modern information and communication technologies. In other words, it was decided to unite interests of the youth – learning something new and using computers and mobile devices. It was the aim of development of multimedia interactive educational resources of new generation.

The first joint projects of the BNL and JINR were “Lessons on relativistic nuclear collider” and the online-project “Online Science Classroom”. This work was started by Tim Hollman (BNL), Yu.A. Panebrattsev, E.V. Potrebnikova, Yu.D. Orlova (JINR), Yu.A. Kruikov, N.E. Sidorov, K.V. Klygina (“Dubna” University). The work turned out to be very interesting, and young specialists in the fields of computer graphics and programming started to join it. At that moment, establishment of the organizational structure was needed. At that time, A.N. Sissakian was actively working at development of the “innovative layer” of JINR, some kind of a prototype of the special economic zone. In 2004, a decision was made to launch educational projects and prepare exhibitions about modern science. In 2008, the company became a resident of the Special Economic Zone “Dubna”. The major goal of the company was using modern opportunities of information and communication technologies for creating brand new educating resources for various stages of education. The “Intergraphics” LLC develops multimedia educational resources of various degrees of complexity – from multimedia presentations and online courses to complex interactive educational software and hardware systems. “Teach to study” is the motto of the staff of the “Intergraphics” company.

“Intergraphics” LLC has been working with JINR for 14 years. The most significant projects are: creation of exhibitions of JINR for the World Fair EXPO-2005 in Japan and for school students in the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, establishment of the A.N. Sissakian Enlightenment Centre in Dubna, exhibition stands “Online Science Classroom” in the Brookhaven National Laboratory and CERN, creation of the exhibition stand “Mir” (lit. “peace”) to the 60th anniversary of JINR in the Cultural Centre “Mir”, exhibitions in the Slovak Technical Museum and at the sites of other JINR Member States, creation of the open classroom for Russian schools “NICA – the Universe in the lab” jointly with Academician G.V. Trubnikov.

This year, the JINR Educational Portal was launched containing publicly available video courses by scientists and engineers of the Institute. Nowadays, lectures by professors V.A. Nikitin, Yu.E. Peniozhkevich, V.P. Gerdt are available on the portal. Leading scientists of the Veksler and Baldin Laboratory of High Energy Physics A.O. Sidorin and S.A. Kostromin prepared and presented a unique course of lectures on the accelerating complex NICA to university students. Various universities from 12 countries use the hardware and software complex “Virtual Laboratory”.

In 2019, the “Intergraphics” company is going to hold events dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the Mendeleev Periodic Table, to prepare jointly with JINR an open classroom for Russian school children on the synthesis of new superheavy elements in Dubna.

Festivals of science, Days of Physics in Dubna, creation of information and educational centres of JINR in the JINR Member States, schools for physics teachers in Dubna and CERN, participation in modern international and Russian educational projects, training programmes in Dubna for students and school students, development of electronic textbooks for school students and courses on modern science for university students – these are examples of scientific and educational activities of JINR aimed to popularize science among the youth. The JINR University Centre, the “Intergraphics” LLC contribute to this enormous and useful work and fulfil notions of “science and society”, “science and education” with a specific content.

“DViN” and “Diamant”: basing on the tagged neutron method

The Explosives and drugs detectors company (LLC DViN) was established in 2008 to apply tagged neutron method (TNM) developed by scientists of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research. Until this moment, studying of the TNM has been carried out in JINR for 10 years. As a result, experimental prototypes of detectors were developed that allowed detecting explosives concealed in shipping containers, transport vans or luggage of air passengers.

The “Shirota” facility during testing in the Vnukovo airport

In 2008, DViN became a the SEZ “Dubna” resident. Batch production of detectors of explosives based on the TNM was started with the participation of ROSNANO, which jointly with DViN and JINR united into the “Neutron technologies” company in 2010. ROSNANO investments contributed to developing a promising technology into a competitive business. The developed production infrastructure allowed installing of more than 100 mobile complexes for detecting explosives DViN-1 at the major objects of the RF transport infrastructure. At present, the “DViN” company produces alpha-detectors and electronics for data-collecting systems.

The “Diamant” company was established in 2014 for applying the tagged neutron method in the diamond industry as well as for working out a new technology of specifying the ultimate composition of rocks and minerals. Since 2018, the “Diamant” company is the SEZ “Dubna” resident.

The AR facility (Analyzer of Rocks)

The tagged neutron method, developed at the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research and successfully applied by the LLC “DViN”, became the basis for activities of the “Diamant” company as well. The method is to irradiate the studied object by fast neutrons with further registration of gamma-quanta of the characteristic radiation. Each chemical element has its own range of gamma-quanta, and this allows determining its presence even if it is screened by other matter, concealed in a safe, or surrounded by a rock.

For instance, if we irradiate a kimberlite, it will be possible to say whether it contains diamonds or not. A prototype for enrichment of kimberlite ore based on the TNM method was tested at the dressing plant of the Public Joint Stock Company “Severalmaz” SC “Alrosa” in 2018. It was shown that a diamond can be found in a rock, linear dimensions of which are ten times larger than the size of the diamond.

The TNM technique is successfully used to determine the concentration of various chemical elements in the field. Its major advantages are the complete rejection of the time-consuming procedure of sample preparation and the possibility of obtaining the data about the elemental composition of large masses of matter. A sample of 5-10 kg, taken directly from the snow-covered pit, is placed in the input tray of the facility without any sample preparation. Experimental-industrial operation of the TNM facility is currently held in the mine of JSC “Apatite” in the Khibiny. Next year, operation of such a plant at Kovdor “EuroChem” Group AG is planned.

Materials by Svetlana Strogova