PIK of the bunch

摘要

In 2001 Russia's Nuclear Energy Ministry (Minatom), the Ministry of Industry, Science, and Technologies, and Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences provided R199 million ($7 million) to continue construction of the PIK research reactor at the St Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute (PNPI) in Gatchina. Although the sum was only 61.66% of what was allocated for 2001, it has enabled work to resume on the project which had an initial cost estimated at 1150 million, according to PNPI centre director Vladimir Nazarenko. He says the reactor is 80% ready and only about $35 million worth of work remains to be done. Construction began in 1976 but was repeatedly suspended due to the lack of finances. So far, construction of the research complex has cost $150 million. The aim is to begin operation in 2003, provided the project is financed properly. The reactor will be used for fundamental studies of solid bodies, particle interaction, and other problems of nuclear physics, radiation chemistry; and biology. The reactor's physical parameters and test capacities arc such that it could become the centre of an international centre for neutron research.