During a working visit, representatives of the Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU), have visited a unique research site of Tomsk Polytechnic University – the only operating university nuclear research reactor in Russia.
On the basis of the TPU Reactor, not only advanced fundamental and applied research is being carried out to create new materials and technologies in the energy field, nuclear medicine, but also university students, including foreign ones, are being trained.
The partners from Moscow State University were told about the projects of TPU scientists and researchers implemented in the Reactor laboratory: in the field of obtaining radiopharmaceuticals, spectrometric and neutron activation analysis. A separate topic was the training of professionals using the facilities of the Reactor.
“Since we are a scientific and educational organization, it is very important for us to be able to send our students, including foreign ones, for internships. Here, you definitely have a unique site,”
said following the visit Andrey Putyatin, Advisor to the Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry at MSU.
The parties discussed plans for joint projects, including the opening of a laboratory for handling irradiated reactor graphite, where it is planned to carry out not only research work, but also provide services to industrial partners in the field of radiation measurements, including alpha, beta, gamma spectrometry.
“The second laboratory, which we plan to create jointly with MSU and industrial partners, is a project dedicated to the study of clay-containing barrier materials used in the decommissioning of nuclear and radiation dangerous facilities. In this laboratory, unlike the worldwide practice, it is supposed to carry out experiments to determine not only the anti-migration and anti-filtration properties of barriers, but also to determine their radiation resistance to radiation. This is a very relevant and promising area for joint activities, primarily due to Ensuring Nuclear and Radiation Safety for 2016-2020 and for Period up to 2030, the current federal target program.” It provides for the decommissioning of nuclear facilities located including in Siberia and the Urals. Here Tomsk has certain geographical advantages,” explained TPU Deputy Vice-Rector for Research and Technology Transfer Yevgeny Bespala.
In turn, Vladimir Petrov, Head of the Laboratory of Dosimetry and Environmental Radioactivity of the Division of Radiochemistry of the MSU Faculty of Chemistry, noted that the TPU Reactor provides a great opportunity for research, including the production of materials and the study of their properties.
“In my opinion, this is a big advantage compared to other sites. The operating university reactor is definitely a unique case. This opens up a really wide field for interaction, implementation of projects related to materials science, radiopharmaceuticals, and radiochemistry. We hope that the projects that we are discussing with you will come to life,” he noted.
