INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

Weapons abandoned in favour of detectors

The Cold War once absorbed a tremendous amount of resources and talent on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Particle physics is now at the forefront of a major,

international effort that is refocusing these resources in more profitable directions.

Non-proliferation through scientific co-operation is the mission state­ment of the International Science and Technology Centre.The centre was established in 1992 under an agreement between the European Union, Japan, the Russian Feder­ation and the US. Since 1992, other member nations have joined: Norway, Korea, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakstan and Kirgizstan.

Based in Moscow, the Inter­national Science and Technology Centre (ISTC) provides ex-weap­ons scientists from former Soviet Union (FSU) countries with the opportunity to refocus their talents on peaceful activities.These activ­ities may include helping to solve national and international tech­nical problems; supporting the transition to market-based econ­omies; contributing to basic and applied research; and encourag­ing the integration of other former weapons scientists into the international scientific community.

In the years 1992-9, ISTC programmes funded 830 projects worth US$230 million, providing grant payments to more than 30 000 workers. Particle physics and CERN played a valuable role in bringing together scientists and promoting understanding during the Cold War, and this role is continuing in the ISTC.

The main thrust of the ISTC programme is to support projects for FSU centres in collaboration with foreign firms or organizations. A significant proportion of the funding comes from ISTC sources. Each project is assigned to a CERN-familiar Russian "lead institute", which acts as a gateway to a frequently unfamiliar new supplier.

This traditional ISTC programme was extended in 1997 by the

Particle physics in general and CERN in particular play a leading role in the work of the Moscow-based International Science and Technology Centre (ISTC). Its "swords into ploughshares" programmes redirect ex-Soviet weapons expertise towards more agreeable and profitable avenues. Left to right: ISTC executive director Alain Gerard, his assistant Alia Godunova and ISTC head of contracts and agreements, Norihiko Yokoyama, admire one of the calorimeter crystals provided by a major ISTC project for the CMS detector at CERN's LHC collider.

Partnership Programme, under which western organizations fund research and development to be conducted on their behalf at FSU centres via the ISTC. In this frame­work the outside funding is chan­nelled by the ISTC, which also provides the necessary infra­structure and management inside the FSU region.

Overall, Partnership Programme contracts now exist with almost 60 partners, who work in the elec­trical, biomedical and chemical industries, as well as at research centres such as CERN. ISTC direc­tor-general Alain Gerard declared: "CERN-ISTC co-operation in high-energy physics continues to be a shining example of the unique and effective nature of the Partnership Programme, and it is a model for our future activities with CERN and other FSU institutes."

The ISTC "business", under both the traditional ISTC activities and the Partnership Programme, rep­resents only a fraction of the total CERN-Russia collaboration. However, it signficantly extends its involvement to include additional institutes and a wider pool of expertise.

Case-studies One of the first major projects under the ISTC banner began in 1994. This was a feasibility study of technologies for the accelerator-based conversion of plutonium and long-lived radioactive waste.

The Russian lead institute was Moscow's Institute forTheoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP), with six other Russian centres also being involved.The partners were CERN and the US Los [>

CERN Courier March 2000 19

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

Overall, Partnership Programme contracts now exist with almost 60 . partners, who work in the electrical, biomedical and chemical industries, as well as at research centres such as CERN

announced its initial results (CERN Courier September 1999 p6). Arranged through the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Moscow, the project involved the Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Centre, and ENTEK in Moscow. INFN Pisa was also a major partner.

Development work for experiments at CERN's future LHC collider is the theme of several major ISTC projects. Special computer systems to facilitate LHC detector design is the goal of VNIITF in Snezhinsk, with JINR also being involved. Recently the Snezhinsk institute

Alamos National Laboratory, both of which have demon­strated the feasibility of using particle beams from accel­erators to transmute weapons-grade plutonium and to reprocess nuclear waste.

Directly involved in CERN's mainstream programme of res­earch was an ISTC project for the design and construction of a cryostat and vacuum windows for a large liquid krypton calori­meter. The calorimeter is a key element of the NA48 CP viol­ation experiment, which recently

assumed responsibility for the construction of major support struc­tures for the ATLAS experiment, also involving JINR Dubna, IHEP Protvino and MPI Munich (CERN Courier January/February p6).

The inner tracker and forward multiplicity detector (FMD-MCP) for the ALICE experiment at CERN involves TsKBM of St Petersburg as the lead institute, together with JINR; the Nuclear Physics Institute in Gatchina, St Petersburg; the Kurchatov Research Centre, Moscow; the Mendeleev Institute of Metrology, St Petersburg; and several other St Petersburg concerns, as well as the university. On the CERN side, INFN Ferrara and Utrecht University provide the main interface.

For CMS, the production of lead tungstate crystals for the electro­magnetic calorimeter was investigated by the BogoroditskTechno-Chemical plant. After this pilot study, mass-production of the 80 000 crystals will be shared by the Bogoroditsk plant and the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics (CERN Courier January/February p6).

For the endcap of the ATLAS hadron calorimeter, the main Russian partner is the Institute of High-Energy Physics (IHEP) in Protvino, Moscow, which is working with NPO Molniya of Moscow. The main collaborators are the Max-Planck Institut in Munich and CERN.

Several items for LHC detectors involve mass-production, such as the injection moulding for 0.5 million 200x400 mm transparent scintillation tiles to clad the ATLAS hadron calorimeter. IHEP in Protvino is the main Russian coordinator, with two specialist Russian concerns. For ATLAS, the project is handled by the Laboratorio de Instrumentacao e Fisica Experimental de Particulas, Lisbon. •

24H Connector Systems Modular Connectors

high contact density

I unlimited combination of power, signal, coaxial, fiber optic

and pneumatic contacts

in Alu-frame and DIN-housing

I with ODU-Springwire Contacts for > 1 Mio. mating cycles

each contact easy replaceable

ODU-MAC is ideally suited

for demanding situations where high reliability is required

when high packing density in a compact design is required

ODU-Steckverbindungssysteme GmbH & Co. KG

Internet: http://www.odu.de

PregelstraBe 11 D-84453 Muhldorf

Tel.+49/8631/6156-0 Fax:+49/8631/6156-49 E-Mail: zentral@odu.de

20 CERN Courier March 2000