Supported by the council: Kurchatov Institute and Rosatom united nuclear projects

SRC Kurchatov Institute and Rosatom State Corporation have established a joint strategic development council. It will coordinate the activities of the organizations for joint implementation of projects in the nuclear sphere. The documents were signed by the heads of the organizations Mikhail Kovalchuk and Alexey Likhachev. The new structure provides for cooperation in 13 areas. Among them - in the nuclear industry, nuclear medicine, materials science, Arctic and space exploration. The Council should ensure the functioning of organizations within the framework of a single scientific and production complex.

How to combine the efforts of science and industry

National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute" and State Corporation "Rosatom" signed an agreement on the creation of a joint council for strategic development. The documents were signed by the heads of the organizations Mikhail Kovalchuk and Alexey Likhachev.

The ceremony took place on February 11 in Moscow during a joint meeting of the heads of the Kurchatov Institute, Rosatom and the Russian Academy of Sciences dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the nuclear industry.

According to the regulations on the council, the new structure is focused on ensuring cooperation between organizations in 13 areas in the nuclear sphere. They include nuclear industry, nuclear medicine, materials science, Arctic and space exploration. In general, the council should ensure the functioning of the two organizations as a single scientific-technological and industrial-economic complex.

The main task of the Kurchatov Institute in the new structure is the advanced formation of scientific and technical reserves on the basis of fundamental research and applied development. At the same time, Rosatom will be responsible for accelerated industrial development and bringing such solutions to the markets.

- Today we have the task of building a high-tech economy. And we are building it. In this sense, the merger of the two largest enterprises is particularly important. The first of them is a kind of a laboratory, and the second is a national-scale plant. It is advisable that they work together, complementing each other. This will ensure the fastest transfer of advanced scientific developments and inventions into pilot and then serial production, - said Mikhail Kovalchuk.

He noted that the mobilization of scientific and technological potential will strengthen the sovereignty and security of the country and accelerate the creation of breakthrough developments to improve the life and health of people.

How to reach the advanced pace of development

Alexei Likhachev stressed that our country achieved the greatest successes when organizations worked on breakthrough scientific and technological projects in parallel rather than sequentially. Among other things, an important element in the success of the Soviet nuclear project was the integration of various institutions, such as the Kurchatov Institute and the Ministry of Medium Machine Building, which was responsible for the development of the domestic nuclear industry. This cooperation ensured the exchange of knowledge and resources that facilitated rapid progress.

- When the first plutonium on a molecular scale was produced at the Radium Institute, almost simultaneously this technology was confirmed at a pilot reactor at the Kurchatov Institute, where several grams of the substance were already in question. At the same time, in Chelyabinsk-40 (now Ozersk), facility "A" - the first industrial weaponized nuclear reactor in the USSR and Europe - was already under construction. Scientists were not working one after another, but in parallel, theorists, applied scientists and industrialists were creating the basis for nuclear weapons and obtaining the necessary fissile material for the first product. The whole strength of the atomic project was in unity, - the head gave an example.

In addition to the heads of the Kurchatov Institute and Rosatom, the event was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, Presidential Aide Andrei Fursenko, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Gennady Krasnikov, as well as scientific leaders of leading industry institutes and other Russian scientists.

- Today, development is taking place at the intersection of many industries and many areas of science. This includes the active introduction of neural networks, machine learning and other technologies that allow us to significantly accelerate research work. I think that such synergy, which has been established between academic science and industry, is becoming an important factor in the development of our country, - emphasized Gennady Krasnikov.

The event ended with the presentation of honorary awards. Thus, the jubilee medal "80 Years of the Russian Nuclear Industry" with the first number was awarded to Lev Ryabev, one of the former leaders of the national nuclear industry, Deputy Director for Development of the Institute of State Corporation "Rosatom" in Sarov, Hero of Russia.

In addition, 16 people were honored with insignia "Academician I.V. Kurchatov" and "For Contribution to the Development of the Nuclear Industry" of different degrees. The awardees include academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences, scientists of the Kurchatov Institute and specialists of Rosatom State Corporation.