24 July, 2014. The Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics and NSU have launched a new Radiation Center aimed mostly at applied research but with fundamental study in view, as the founders state it.
鈥淚deas are plentiful,鈥� says Dr Alexander A. Bryazgin, the Head of the department of industrial electron beam accelerators at the BINP and the director of the Radiation Center. 鈥淲e develop new radiation-chemical technologies in collaboration with the chemical institutes of SB RAS and NSU. I would like to emphasize our cooperation with the Institute of Solid State Chemistry and Mechanochemistry of SB RAS. We are working on recycling highly-toxic industrial waste and turning it into useful material, e.g., resin after mixed feed kiln into oven coke. Another promising technology is making all-purpose engine oil. Now some additives are produced only abroad, but our equipment allows us to irradiate, for instance, methyl methacrylate (a monomer produced on a large scale for the production of poly(methyl methacrylate) in oil, where it polymerizes, and obtain the substance in question. Moreover, our scientists could irradiate food in order to save the vitamins and prolong the term of storage. The Russian law does not permit such activities, but they are widely spread in the US and other foreign countries.
Academician Gennady Kulipanov adds that Russia is on track to phase out imports although the share of imported food products accounts as rather high. Meanwhile about 30% of Russian food products lose condition, which causes yield losses. New technologies developed at the Budker institute will help to achieve much better quality for the products.
鈥淜azakhstan has supported us, so the Customs Union may advance such activities,鈥� said Gennady Kulipanov.
The founders of the Radiation Center also plan to use it as another research facility for students and graduates of the Natural Sciences and Physics Departments of NSU.
鈥淧hysicists are to work with the accelerators while chemists study the chemical changes inside. Our work is targeted mostly at the applied sciences, but the fundamental research is still there,鈥� comments Alexander Bryazgin. 鈥淭hese operations are unique as we can process polymers, sterilize surgical materials, synthesize new chemical substances, etc. while saving time and energy.鈥�
After the irradiated objects go along the conveyer belt, the residual radiation vanishes; however, during sterilization the radiation measures as 15-20kGy, which is a lethal dose for a person. Safety is guaranteed due to the use of low-energy accelerators (5MeV) while all the activation reactions start at 10MeV. The accelerator for the Radiation Center was developed locally, by the scientists at the Budker Institute. This model (ILU-10) has already been bought by their foreign colleagues from Kazakhstan, Poland, India and China. Two accelerators of this type were delivered to the US.
鈥淥ur way was long and difficult, but it paid off. We have done tremendous job to make this happen and I am grateful to the NSU Rector who came forward to help when the Center鈥檚 fate was hanging in the balance,鈥� said Yuriy Tikhonov, Deputy Director for Science in the Budker institute, at the opening ceremony.
The NSU Rector Mikhail Fedoruk made a point that the Center is a valuable asset not only to the university and the SB RAS, but also to the whole country. 鈥淭he profit of the Center will go to improve the existing radiation technologies and develop new ones,鈥� added the Rector.
