Between 2 and 6 June, 68th international conference “Nucleus – 2018” “Fundamental problems of nuclear physics, nuclear energy industry, and nuclear technology” took place in the Gorky healthcare centre. The event was dedicated to the centenary of Voronezh State University and the 80th anniversary of professor K.A. Gridnev. Among the participants of the event were over 150 physicists from Russia, the CIS, and senior and postgraduate students.
The event was organised by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, the Russian Academy of Sciences, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Nuclear Physics Research Institute of Moscow State University, Saint Petersburg State University, Novovoronezh nuclear power station, and Voronezh State University.
The conference started with a welcoming speech by the Vice Rector for Research and Innovations, Vasily Popov. He told the audience about the history of the university, its achievements, and its scientific and pedagogical challenges. Vasily Popov also emphasised that they these challenges can only be met thanks to the integrated research potential of all natural science subdivisions, contributions of all areas: biology, mathematics, and chemistry, and the achievements in Physics. A lot of attention is paid to nuclear physics, especially to the Department of Nuclear Physics which specialises in the areas of medical physics, physics of atomic nuclei and elementary particles, and nuclear physics and nuclear technologies.
In May, Voronezh State University joined the consortium of flagship universities of state atomic energy corporation “Rosatom” which has among its participants leading Russian universities, including National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, and others.
Among the speakers at the opening ceremony was the Head of the Department of Nuclear Physics of the Faculty of Physics, Stanislav Kadmensky. He told the audience about the history of the department, its heads, and new goals to prepare new researchers and specialists.
The conference had seven sections: “Experimental studies of properties of atomic nucleus”, “Experimental studies of nuclear reaction mechanisms”, “Atomic nucleus theory and fundamental interactions”, “Nuclear reaction theory”, “Application of nucleus physics methods in related fields of science and technology”, “Fundamental issues of the nuclear energy industry and nuclear technologies in Russia and abroad”.
At the plenary session Professor Victor Utenkov presented the report by the Full Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yury Oganesyan whose name is known thanks to oganesson, the 118th chemical element of the Mendeleev periodic table. Then, Alexandre Mikhalchuk gave a talk “Modern trends in managing existing atomic power stations and engineering new atomic power stations”. Gevorg Danilyan presented his report “Triple fission by thermal neutrons”.
