"Within the next seven years, Russia will have the most powerful research infrastructure in the world"

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is closing access of Russian scientists to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland from the first of December this year. The decision will affect almost five hundred researchers who participated in experiments at the research facility, created by the efforts of many countries. Russia has made a special contribution to the development of the LHC. In an interview with Izvestia, Mikhail Kovalchuk, President of the Kurchatov Institute, told us what this decision means for Russian fundamental science and how it will affect international scientific cooperation. Mikhail Kovalchuk.

"Any termination of relations - it is always painful"

- The journal Nature reported that from the first of December this year hundreds of our physicists will be banned access to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Scientists have a choice - to refuse to work in Russian institutes and move to foreign ones. There is already an understanding - how will they do it?

- What each physicist will do personally, I do not know. But I can say something about the problem as a whole. First of all, there is nothing new in it. This story has been going on for almost a year. CERN decided a year ago to refuse our services. Now they are actually implementing it. Any termination of relations, including scientific ones, is always painful and difficult. Because ties, traditions, and scientific activity are severed.

But I will allow myself to say, perhaps for some, a strange thing: for Russian science, this is a positive moment, because the megaprojects developing in Russia today require a lot of scientists and engineers.

- Can you elaborate on this?

- We have a large program to develop megasciences facilities in the country, launched by presidential decree. Huge sums of money have been allocated for it - more than half a trillion rubles for a fairly short period of time - until the early 2030s. The money has been allocated for the creation of a unique megasciences infrastructure that has no analogues in the world.

We are developing, creating and building installations all over the country. The world's most powerful high-flow neutron research reactor in Gatchina (PIK. - "Izvestia"). A unique facility combining an X-ray free-electron laser and a synchrotron gas pedal in Protvino, at our site near Moscow. A new fourth-generation synchrotron source SKIF (Siberian Ring Photon Source) is under construction in the Koltsovo science city in the Novosibirsk region. Two experimental SKIF stations are intended for the Vector Virology Center. - "Izvestia"). The new installation "Russian Photon Source" (RIF is designed for the study of proteins, molecular and atomic structures. - "Izvestia"), on Russky Island on the campus of the Far Eastern Federal University. X-ray lithography synchrotron in Zelenograd, which was built back in Soviet times but frozen. Today we are launching it in full swing. The Tokamak (toroidal chamber with magnetic coils. - "Izvestia") at the Kurchatov Institute is in operation.

In other words, within the next five to seven years we will have the most advanced, most modern, most powerful research infrastructure in the world.

"We are an intellectual donor."

- Will Russian institutions be able to employ physicists who lost their jobs at CERN? What existing projects might interest them from a professional point of view?

- Our physicists, having worked abroad for the last 15 years, have certainly gained useful experience there. But, on the other hand, they came there with their own ideas and skills. After all, many Western scientific projects that exist today, such as the Free Electron Laser (FEL) in Germany, the Tokamak International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER, International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) in France, and a whole range of other facilities, are actually all based on the ideas of Soviet-Russian science. In other words, we are an intellectual donor.

We have always had some of the best facilities in the world for nuclear physics, high energy physics, elementary particle physics, synchrotron-neutron research. For example, in Protvino we have a proton gas pedal U70, like in CERN, it is one of the three world leaders in this field. Thus, scientists who have worked abroad will now be able to concentrate on research at domestic world-class mega-installations.

By order of the President, a unique Center for Mega Science has been created on the basis of the Kurchatov Institute. It includes all the facilities I have listed. Both those that exist today and are operating at full speed, and those that will be created in the coming years. Belarus, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan have already joined this center, and now we are discussing the issue of Kazakhstan and Iran joining.

"Our contribution is very significant

- Contributions from Russian institutes and foundations amounted to about 4.5% of the budget for experiments at the LHC. How will this affect the work of CERN?

- Indeed, in addition to the fact that we are an intellectual donor and in fact all these projects were launched thanks to the arrival of Russian scientists in the West, in Europe, we were also one of the largest financial donors. For example, we have contributed a total of more than €2 billion to projects over the past decades. Just one project - the free electron laser (FEL) - cost €1 billion 200 million. 50% was contributed by Germany, 29% by Russia, and more than ten European countries contributed less than 20%. We supply a large number of different technological solutions there.

Just one example: at CERN, four calorimeters have been built as the basis for observations of the Higgs boson. These are huge, five-story-high special detectors consisting of hundreds of tons of lead tungstate crystals. The only country that has been able to develop and grow these crystals in such quantity is us. Or the quark-gluon plasma experiment - was proposed and realized almost entirely by Russian scientists. So let them think about what consequences they will now have from us leaving. In every sense. Both financially and intellectually.

-For whom is this situation more painful - for Russian science or for world science?

- We have always been the greatest scientific power, including in the field of megasciences. This began with the atomic project, which was realized in the United States and in the Soviet Union. So we and the Americans were actually the only countries that fully developed and invented these facilities. For example, every gas pedal in the world, counter beams, collider - all of this was invented in Russia. In every gas pedal there is the principle of autophasing. And it was proposed by Academician Veksler. Synchrotron radiation itself was predicted here by academicians Pomeranchuk and Ivanenko. A lot of important things were first created here. And today the situation has not changed much.

Tokamak in the south of France - an international fusion reactor is being built, a toroidal chamber with magnetic coils is being created. And it is called by the Russian word "Tokamak", the same international abbreviation as "satellite". In other words, what was invented 50 years ago at the Kurchatov Institute is being realized.

We remain leaders in this field and will strengthen our positions today.