International science and technology cooperation

The international science and technology cooperation of RFNC -VNIIEF is associated with the efforts of world scientific community towards non-proliferation of nuclear weapons technologies.

In early 2011 the Agreement between Russia and the USA for Cooperation within commercial implementation of nuclear energy (Agreement N 123) came into force, which declares reciprocal readiness of the leaders of the world nuclear market to embody the associated projects. The Agreement served as the legal base for exchange and joint development of innovative nuclear technologies.

The RFNC - VNIIEF international science and technology cooperation proceeds in accordance with intergovernmental and framework agreements supporting the international arms reduction, nuclear nonproliferation and test ban treaties, joint research programs in fundamental and applied science, and industrial partnership.

The first international contacts of RFNC - VNIIEF date back to 1990. That was when memoranda and protocols were signed with the scientific establishments of the USA, France, China, Czechia and Belgium. The main areas of RFNC - VNIIEF international cooperation are:

  • high energy density physics;
  • high-temperature plasma physics;
  • nuclear physics;
  • laser physics and high-power laser technology;
  • gasdynamics and detonation physics;
  • computation and simulation, information technologies;
  • nuclear power safety;
  • technological aspects of nuclear materials control, accountability and storage;
  • production of high-purity isotopes;
  • tritium technologies;
  • development of equipment for various research and production needs;
  • miscellaneous new technologies, biomedical included, and advansed materials.

A visit of IAEA commission into RFNC-VNIIEF in 2010

Since 1992 RFNC-VNIIEF had been cooperating with the International Center for Science and Technology (ISTC). About 500 projects had been executed since that time. On 11 August, 2011 the President of the Russian Federation signed the Statute N 534-rp, which terminated participation of the Russian Federation in ISTC. As of 2010, RFNC-VNIIEF was the participant of 39 officially financed projects, 23 of which were successfully completed.

The RFNC - VNIIEF international partners are: National laboratories of the US DOE, Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (France), international scientific organizations IAEA  and CERN, scientific organizations of USA, European Union, China and Japan, the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics, industrial companies of USA and Europe.

RFNC - VNIIEF is the regular participant in important symposiums arranged by IAEA and International and European physical societies.

Since 1992, RFNC - VNIIEF maintains contacts with International Science and Technology Center (ISTC). It is the intergovernmental organization whose mission includes development, approval, funding and monitoring of sci-tech projects that meet its goals as follows:

  • provide the weapons scientists and engineers in Russia and the FSU states an opportunity to redirect themselves to nondefense activities;
  • promote transition to a market economy meeting the public needs;
  • support basic and applied science and technology developments for peaceful applications;
  • assist with integration of the weapons scientists and engineers in Russia and FSU into international scientific community.

The Russian Federal Nuclear Center and ISTC cooperation started in 1992, and there have been about 500 projects accomplished ever since.

In 2009, RFNC - VNIIEF was participating in 51 projects funded by ISTC. Collaborators on the ISTC projects are both research organizations and industry in USA, Europe, Canada and Japan. The projects represent actually all areas of the RFNC - VNIIEF activity.

The CEA/DAM delegation's visit at RFNC – VNIIEF, 2009
The CEA/DAM delegation's visit at RFNC – VNIIEF, 2009

Cooperative efforts of RFNC-VNIIEF and the national laboratories managed by the US DOE play the dominant role in international activities of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center. The principal partners of RFNC-VNIIEF are Los-Alamos National laboratory (LANL), Lawrence Livermore National laboratory (LLNL), Sandia National Labs (SNL), Oak-Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and some other. The basic sphere of cooperation lies within accounting, control and storage of nuclear materials, and also tackles the problems of physics of high energy densities, mathematical simulation and material properties. 

The first Russian-French consultations dealing with safe reduction of Russian nuclear weapons were held in 1992. In 1996, during their meeting, the Directors of CEA/DAM (Commissariat d’Energie Atomique) and RFNC-VNIIEF signed the framework agreement, which served as the background for future fruitful collaboration.
At present CEA/DAM and RFNC-VNIIEF on cooperative basis are involved into mathematical simulation of the problems of continuum mechanics, physics of high energy densities; development of methods and algorithms used to construct spatial computational grids; methods and problems of data visualization on multi-processor computers. Studies within gas dynamics, explosive physics, material properties under the extreme conditions are underway together with C.E.G. Research Center.

RFNC-VNIIEF cooperates with the Laboratory of Strong Magnetic Fields, Dresden, Germany, and the Center for Nuclear Materials Study, Karlsruhe, Germany within development of strong magnetic fields and plasma physics.

The representatives of RFNC-VNIIEF are the members of the Consultative Group at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The group is the active participant of international projects aimed at production and commercialization of uranium isotopes and transuranic elements to be implemented as the constituent part of standard nuclear materials.
Specialists from RFNC-VNIIEF work in the Group of Nuclear Vendors.

 
Mounting of the last module of PHOS spectrometer into the supporting structure

In 1997 the Center of Nuclear Physical Data was established in RFNC-VNIIEF, which is the member of the Nuclear Reaction Data Center Network under IAEA. The Network serves for coordination of the activities aimed at collection, compilation and distribution of nuclear-related data amidst the world community. As for the Center in RFNC-VNIIEF, it regularly delivers the information to the international library of experimental data EXFOR, which, in its turns, supplies RFNC-VNIIEF with the new generalized libraries related to fusion reaction constants.

CERN: is the world-biggest scientific research center engaged into the problems of particle physics. The global scientific project, aimed at revealing the fundamental properties of the matter, - the Large Hadronic Collider (LHC), involves more than 400 physical institutes and big industrial companies worldwide. Preparatory work for ALICE experiment (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) aimed at study of quark-gluon plasma is underway, RFNC-VNIIEF being part of this work since 1997 as the designer of two detector systems: PHOS photon spectrometer and muon spectrometer. In September 2009 the important stage of PHOS project was completed: assembly and installation of full-scale three-module spectrometer mounted on the ring of BAK accelerator, which is part of ALICE experimental facility. At present the experts from VNIIEF, who are responsible for continuous functioning of the coolant system for PHOS spectrometer, located in the pit of ALICE experiment, monitor and analyze the operational parameters of the system.