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The International Conference named “Twenty years of collaboration between nuclear centers of Rosatom and the US national laboratories” was opened on 23 April, 2012.
The International Conference named “Twenty years of collaboration between nuclear centers of Rosatom and the US national laboratories” was opened on 23 April, 2012. The Conference gathered the scientists and experts from the State Corporation Rosatom, nuclear centers VNIIEF and VNIITF, NIIIS after Yu.E. Sedakov, VNIIA after N.L. Dukhov, OKBM after I.I. Afrikantov.The USA delegation headed by ex-director of Los-Alamos national laboratory Siegfrid Hecker combined the current experts and veterans of LANL (Los-Alamos NL), LLNL (Lawrence Livermore NL), PNNL (North-Pacific NL) and Sandia national labs governed by the Department of Energy of the USA.
The director of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center VNIIEF Valentin Kostyukov in his opening word underlined, that the purpose of the Conference is to give the retrospective view of collaboration between two countries and to find out the perspectives for the same, saying: “Today is the historical day, which is to conclude our joint efforts. With these twenty years behind we can now pay tribute to courage and firmness of those people, who started these undertakings in times, which were not easy for both countries”. Director of VNIIEF expressed his hope, that the Conference will give impetus to positive developments both in Russia and the USA. Siegfrid Hecker, going back to 20-year old political events, mentioned: “We understood those days, that we better be cooperating, than competing to build nuclear safety in a proper way”.
Ex-director of Los-Alamos NL said that he regrets the fact, that in the recent years the scope of cooperative efforts reduced dramatically, not because scientists do not want to interact, but because the respective politicians underestimate the threats world-wide, which can be responded only in cooperative manner.
Dr. Hecker announced his initiative to start writing a book, telling about international cooperation, its goals, its value and the lessens learnt by the scientists during the 20 year term. “We do realize, that our generation resigns, - the American scientist said, - thus, we have to hand over our mutual experience to the younger generation, who’s consciousness is not yet shaped, thus giving it the new impetus for further development. What we need is a new era of collaboration.” Professor emeritus of RFNC VNIITF Evgeny Avrorin, recalling the early 90-ies, pointed to the best achieved during these years: prejudice and hostility between the two countries were done away with.
The scientific leader of RFNC VNIIEF, academician of the RAS Radiy Il’kayev in his report underlined the importance of international cooperation and highlighted the problems, which were not yet solved, including several issues of safety and security. “As the life showed, - mentioned academician Il’kayev, - very meaningful results were obtained as a result of our peaceful collaboration”.
The scientific leader of VNIIEF dwelled on such issues as exchange of technical information, safe transportation, safety and security of nuclear munitions, joint exercises and test activities, as well as basic fundamental studies pursued.
Raiy Il’kayev also emphasized that unfortunately a lot of activities under ISTC were significantly reduced, although they are highly preferable for scientists, those involved into nuclear science being in the first line. ISTC projects is one of the effective methods to interact. “If we plan to go on maintaining deterrence, we are committed to follow on developing scientific studies”, - said academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences when finalizing his presentation.
At the opening session the reports on the history of scientific and technical cooperation were presented alongside with those telling about joint efforts, studies, projects and avenues of interaction. The Conference, which was further hosted in Sarov for three more days, finished on 26 of April, 2012. ‹ Назад