History of the Department of Nuclear Physics of the Physics Faculty of St Petersburg University
History of the Department of Nuclear Physics, Faculty of Physics, St Petersburg University
The Department of Nuclear Physics of the Faculty of Physics was established on 26 January 1946.
It was headed by associate professor
B.S. Dzhelepov, who also prepared its creation: he selected and trained the staff, prepared the first instruments, organised a scientific seminar on nuclear physics, developed the curricula of the courses and taught them.
Immediately after the department was organised, a great deal of work was carried out to create teaching laboratories, establish the lecture courses, and to develop and build good scientific instruments.
The scientific direction of the department was defined as early as 1945 and consisted in studying the spectra of quanta and particles leaving atomic nuclei as a result of radioactive decay.
By 1949 the department had reached the level of the best laboratories of the time in the organisation of its laboratory and scientific work.
Over the years of the department's existence its staff created more than 20 different beta and gamma spectrometers, many of which were not inferior to instruments of the same class in the best laboratories abroad.
Laboratory of beta spectroscopy
The head of the laboratory was A.V. Zolotavin. The very first research task facing the department of nuclear spectroscopy was the study of the electron and positron spectra of radiation from radioactive nuclei. For this purpose, in the late 1940s and early 1950s the first magnetic beta spectrometers were built and the first studies were carried out. As technology and methods developed, old instruments were replaced by new ones that could solve more complex problems. By the early 1980s the laboratory had two complex and modern beta spectrometers.
1) The UMB-2B beta spectrometer, a Universal Magnetic Beta spectrometer. The focusing of the electrons emitted by the radiation source follows the principle of an optical spectrometer. At the start, the magnetic line gathers the diverging electron beam into a parallel one. Then a prism separates the electrons by energy, turning the focused electrons through an angle of 150 degrees, and the second lens gathers the turned beam onto the receiving slit, behind which there is an electron detector. To reduce the background, behind the foci of the spectrometer there is an additional lens that focuses the electron beam once more onto a second detector. Such a complex system made it possible to obtain record characteristics: a resolution of up to 0.01 % at a solid angle of 0.05 % and 0.15 % at an effective solid angle of 2.0 %
2) A beta spectrometer with double focusing at an angle of P*1.41 has a resolution of 0.17 % at a solid angle of 0.3 %, and a special device for accelerating electrons makes it possible to measure spectra starting from very low energies - from one to one and a half keV.
Both spectrometers are designed to register high count rates. For this purpose semiconductor electron detectors are used. The above characteristics were necessary for solving the physical problems of the time. The main problems were the study of nuclear structure, the determination of nuclear characteristics, level energies, spins and parities, wave functions of states, and probabilities of nuclear transitions. The data obtained made it possible to answer the question of which levels belong to the system of single-particle states and which to the system of collective states.
Questions related to the interaction of the nucleus with the atomic shell were widely studied. The internal conversion electrons and Auger electrons studied at the department are the result of this effect.
Physics students, starting from their third or fourth year, and some even earlier, took an active part in the scientific work of the laboratory. Depending on their abilities and preferences, they focused most of their attention either on working with the spectrometers or on building various units of equipment - radio engineering devices, recording systems and much more. Students inclined to analytical work studied the properties of nuclear levels and worked extensively with the scientific literature.
In 1974 the department ranked Shablinsky's diploma thesis among the best, in 1975 Amelina's, and in 1977 the thesis of the student Nekrestyanov. On the basis of his own measurements and extensive use of literature data on nuclear reactions, Nekrestyanov showed that the same nucleus can have different shapes. The nucleus of samarium-152 in its ground state is described by an ellipsoid of revolution, while in one of its excited states it has a spherical shape. The nuclear physics of the 1980s made it possible to draw such conclusions about objects 10*E-12 cm in size.
The Department of Nuclear Reactions is 20 years old
Background of the department.
Construction of the cyclotron laboratory. Installation and commissioning of the cyclotron, beam extraction. Creation of the Department of Nuclear Reactions.
One of these measures was the creation at the Faculty of Physics of Leningrad University of a department of the structure of matter and the construction of a cyclotron with a pole diameter of 73 cm.
At the head of the future cyclotron laboratory, the decree on the creation of which was issued in March 1948, was placed Professor Grigory Solomonovich Kvater.
The design and manufacture of the main units of the cyclotron were carried out at the Research Institute of Electrophysical Equipment near Leningrad (later - the Efremov Institute ), while domestic and foreign experience was taken into account. Thus, among the designers were Alkhazov and Brizemeister - participants in the commissioning and operation of cyclotrons at the Radium Institute and the Physicotechnical Institute.
The right hand of the head of the laboratory during its construction and the installation of its equipment was Grigory Semenovich Rusinov. In the early 1950s there appeared at the laboratory V.S. Sadkovsky, V.N. Vasilyev, V.R. Saulit, V.Yu. Padalko and Yu.A. Aleksandrov. The party group of the department of the structure of matter, which included the cyclotron laboratory, was much involved in the construction, installation and commissioning of the cyclotron. The meetings of the party group were attended by the rector of the university A.D. Aleksandrov . The Academic Council of the Faculty of Physics was also concerned with speeding up the commissioning of the cyclotron; it held one of its sessions in the newly built building of the cyclotron laboratory.
In 1956 a graduate of the department of the structure of matter, who had defended his candidate's dissertation in 1955, Pyotr Petrovich Zarubin, was appointed head of the cyclotron laboratory. Shortly before that, Yuri Anatolyevich Lakomkin had appeared at the laboratory and begun to work actively; he was soon appointed the first chief engineer of the cyclotron.
All the research staff of the laboratory took part in the commissioning work and were responsible for the main areas of work, for example: the high-frequency generator - Yu.A. Aleksandrov, V.B. Ustinov, the magnetic field, the vacuum system, the sources - V.S. Sadkovsky and Yu.A. Lakomkin. At the same time, extensive use was made of the experience of the cyclotron laboratories of the Radium Institute, which was headed by the professor of the department Yu.A. Nemilov, and of the Physico-technical institute. In October 1956 an internal beam was obtained, and in June 1957 the beam was extracted from the cyclotron chamber.
Thus the experimental base of the department was created.
It was possible to begin the long-planned scientific and applied research. On 18 June 1957 a decision was taken to separate the cyclotron laboratory into an independent Department of Nuclear Reactions.
Besides the staff of the cyclotron laboratory, members of the department of the structure of matter expressed a wish to join it: O.V. Chubinsky, L.V. Gustova. A little earlier A.E. Denisov had come, and somewhat later Ya.V. Volkov and A.I. Dogintseva. In November 1957 the staff of the new department took part in the first all-union conference on nuclear reactions.
The second stage
Reconstruction of the laboratory. Commissioning of the U-120 cyclotron. Foreign business trips of the staff.
Postgraduate studies and the first dissertations on nuclear reactions. Creation of the theory group. Creation of experimental techniques. Construction of new premises for the cyclotron laboratory.
1958-1967.
The construction of the department and the commissioning of the small cyclotron took about ten years. Nuclear physics developed rapidly in that decade, and the capabilities of the small cyclotron were limited, so it was considered expedient to replace the cyclotron with a more modern one - the U-120, which was being manufactured at that time for a number of people's democracy countries, as well as for Moscow State University, the Kiev Institute of Nuclear Physics, the Sverdlovsk Ural Polytechnic Institute and the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute. This was the unanimous decision of all the research staff, although for many of them it meant postponing the start of their scientific work for several more years. The builders of Glavleningradstroy, and the installers and commissioning engineers of Glavatom, did an enormous amount of work on remodelling the premises, strengthening the radiation protection, and installing and commissioning the cyclotron. The entire staff of the new department took part in dismantling the small cyclotron (it was being sent to Rostov-on-Don) and in the construction work. The laying of concrete for the shielding was carried out by two construction teams of department staff, who worked in two shifts.
The experience gained on the small cyclotron was of great help during the commissioning work. The Regional and City Committees of the CPSU and the party committee of the University gave great help in speeding up the reconstruction.
As a result, the reconstruction took four and a half years, which was already a great achievement; in parallel with the reconstruction, the training of scientific staff went on. In 1959 postgraduate studies were opened at the department.
The first postgraduate students (V.S. Sadkovsky, G.N. Belozersky, K.A. Gridnev, L.V. Krasnov, V.A. Komarov) carried out experimental work at the Radium Institute. From 1962 scientific internships of the department's staff at foreign nuclear centres began (O.V. Chubinsky - the USA, V.E. Bunakov - Denmark, P.A. Vaganov - France).
In 1966, under the guidance of V.A. Krutov, who came from the department of nuclear spectroscopy, a theory group of the department was created, which played a large role in raising the level of the scientific work. In the same year the first candidate's dissertations on nuclear reactions were defended. And from 1968 the defence began of dissertation works carried out on the U-120 cyclotron (A.V. Plavko, B.N. Orlov, A.E. Andropov). Back in 1955 the Council of Ministers of the USSR had decided to equip the nuclear physics laboratory with a number of installations and instruments; in accordance with that decision, technical specifications for several magnetic analysers were developed at the cyclotron laboratory. These analysers were designed at
NIIEFA
and almost all of them were manufactured in the early 1960s. The first of them - a magnetic spectrograph with a sector field - produced scientific results as early as 1966. The staff of the department also developed and built other installations and instruments needed for teaching and scientific work. Thus in 1959 one of the first multichannel spectrographs in the world, developed by the staff of the department and installed on the beam of the cyclotron of the Radium Institute of the Academy of Sciences, began to work (V.F. Litvin, Yu.A. Nemilov). Original reaction chambers were created and semiconductor spectrometers were introduced into measurement practice. The department was equipped with the multichannel analysers modern at that time (AI-100, AI-256).
Owing to the acute shortage of laboratory premises connected with the installation of the U-120 cyclotron, in 1965-1967 a laboratory building of the cyclotron laboratory was constructed and the main construction work on the new experimental hall (which came into service in 1970) was completed.
In 1976 the department received a number of laboratory premises in the new building of
the Research Institute of Physics in Stary Petergof.
The third stage
Creation of the High-Energy Nuclear Physics Laboratory. All-union seminars. The broad front of research of the cyclotron laboratory. Scientific ties of the department, the teaching base in Gatchina. The present day of the department and the prospects for the future.
In 1969 Fyodorovich Litvin, who had come to the department in 1960, defended his doctoral dissertation on the material of many years of research into (d, p) reactions at the Radium Institute and in 1970 secured the organisation of a scientific laboratory for the study of nuclei with high-energy particle beams (the High-Energy Nuclear Physics Laboratory). The main lines of work were headed by graduates of the department, senior research fellows K.A. Gridnev and L.V. Krasnov, as well as Yu.P. Yakovlev. The research was carried out on the high-energy accelerators of Dubna and Gatchina. Already in the first years of work at the laboratory an isotopic effect was discovered in the interaction of high-energy particles with nuclei. In 1974-1976 the new laboratory organised an all-union seminar on the theme: «Study of the structure of nuclear surfaces by the method of high-energy physics», and the Academy of Sciences of the USSR entrusted it with holding all-union seminars on this problem on a permanent basis.
On the basis of the experimental techniques created and the measuring centre established in 1972 on the basis of the AI-4096 multichannel analysers, research unfolded at the cyclotron laboratory on a broad front to study the mechanisms of nuclear reactions at intermediate particle energies and the structure of atomic nuclei.
Already by the 1980s of the 20th century much new data had been obtained on the mechanism of scattering of protons and alpha particles, on the interactions of deuterons with nuclei, and many new nuclear levels and hundreds of new gamma transitions had been discovered.
The work of the department's theorists led to the creation of a new semi-phenomenological model of nuclei (by V.A. Krutov), as well as a new model of the interaction of alpha particles with nuclei (by K.A. Gridnev).
A number of computer programs were created at the department, some of which were widely used in many laboratories of the country.
Along with fundamental research, from as early as 1963, within the framework of economic contracts and agreements on cooperation with branch institutes, the department carried out applied research of great national economic importance. The volume of the completed economic contracts amounted to about one million roubles.
The department carried out joint work with a number of laboratories of the country (the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research /Dubna/, the Radium Institute of the Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Atomic Energy, the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Kiev, Alma-Ata and Tbilisi universities) and also has ties with foreign laboratories. The staff of the department travelled abroad to give lectures, to take part in joint research and to get acquainted with the organisation of teaching and scientific work.
In order to improve the educational process, in 1974 a base section was organised at the department at the Leningrad Institute of Nuclear Physics, with part of the students' practical work transferred to the research installations of
LINP.
The prospects for the development of the department were connected with the creation at the University of a university-wide complex of nuclear departments, including several accelerators for intermediate energies. Among them was the U-120 cyclotron, which had to be converted to isochronous operation.
Thanks for the photographs of the cyclotron to gs1894and to the site
wikimapia
Merger with the Departments of Quantum Mechanics and Neutron and Synchrotron Physics
On 6 November 2013, in accordance with paragraph 26 of the Charter of St Petersburg University, having considered the proposals of the dean of the Faculty of Physics of St Petersburg University, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor M.V. Kovalchuk , by merging the Department of Nuclear Physics of St Petersburg University and the Department of Neutron and Synchrotron Physics of St Petersburg University the Department of Nuclear Physical Methods of Research of St Petersburg University was created Order 4074/4 .
On 27.12.2013 the Department of Quantum Mechanics was also joined to the new department Order 4822/2
My comments can be read here
The nuclear potential
The Department of Nuclear Physics of our university is the oldest nuclear department in Russia, founded in January 1946.
It is known in the country and abroad for training highly qualified specialists, for the theoretical and experimental research of its staff and for its applied work.
And what can nuclear physicists do today?
We gathered a «round table» in the laboratory of nuclear reactions to talk about the scientific potential of the department.
An important note: financial questions (where to get the money for this or who will pay us for it) we put aside and did not discuss!
- Professor Konstantin Aleksandrovich GRIDNEV, head of the Department of Nuclear Physics
- Professor Pyotr Petrovich ZARUBIN
- Aleksandr Evgenyevich ANTROPOV, head of the laboratory of nuclear reactions,
- Yakov Vasilyevich VOLKOV, head of the accelerator
- and Valery Vladimirovich LAZAREV, senior research fellow of the department.
A. Antropov: The laboratory of nuclear reactions is engaged in producing so-called labels for ecology - that is, isotopes which by their characteristics clearly differ from the whole reactor chain. What are nuclear contaminations? They are isotopes of the radioactive elements caesium, plutonium and strontium. And in order to fully control their extraction from soil, water and living objects, one must be able to «recognise» them, to register their presence and quantity. That is what labels are used for. Cyclotron isotopes, which are very specific in their nuclear characteristics and cannot be confused, serve to control the level of contamination and the rate of its change (how many isotopes there are, what they are).
K. Gridnev: Imagine that as a result of an accident at a nuclear reactor a release occurred. It contains various isotopes that upset the ecological balance and are harmful to people and nature. There are special detectors that register these isotopes, and round-the-clock monitoring of the environment is carried out. And to determine whether the release comes from the station or not, one can use the labels that Aleksandr Evgenyevich began to talk about.
A. Antropov: For example, plutonium-238 covered the whole territory as far as Scandinavia. The question arises: when you take a sample of soil or the meat of a reindeer that has eaten plutonium together with lichen, you have to understand how much of it you will actually extract? Radiochemistry is employed to detect and extract plutonium, but the percentage of its extraction is very difficult to maintain. That is why a label is introduced into the soil or into the animal's body, which makes it possible to check whether you have done everything correctly: assessed the plutonium admixture, etc. For example, plutonium-237, which is produced here in our laboratory, was fed by the Finns to reindeer, and they traced in which organs of the reindeer plutonium concentrates. And they found the dangerous organs that must be removed, not used for food, etc. And plutonium-237 is easy to register: unlike all other plutonium isotopes, it has gamma radiation (the others are alpha emitters). The same plutonium-237, obtained in Dubna by an improved technology, was given by the British to a human being - also in order to trace the migration of this isotope in the human body. This isotope is not as harmful as all the others. And as a rule, labels are short-lived isotopes, so there is no problem with their disposal.
Similar labels exist for strontium, which is very difficult to extract. There is a label, strontium-85 (also gamma-emitting, unlike all other strontium isotopes). There are labels for other isotopes as well. And such labels can only be made at accelerators.
K. Gridnev: After the Chernobyl accident many of our physicists took part in eliminating its consequences, including in Kiev. There were plutonium releases there, and the city water supply turned out to be contaminated. The physicists, whose speciality is radiation hygiene, all lived in different hotels, and suddenly discovered that the water everywhere carried traces of plutonium. But in one hotel the water turned out to be absolutely clean! For a long time they could not understand what was the matter? They thought that, as they had worked with radioactivity and had grasped the handrails in public transport, people themselves were carrying this «dirt» into the hotels, dirtying the taps and the water... Then it turned out that in that hotel the water came from a well - it was the hotel of the Central Committee. They had protected themselves against every eventuality... And they discovered this when they carried out a study of the water and looked at the scheme of the city water supply.
A. Antropov: Another direction: an attempt has been made in our laboratory to produce medical radiopharmaceuticals. We can make a unique preparation based on thallium-199 for cardiology. There is simply no such isotope in the city, and in general it is impossible to bring it, because its half-life is 12 hours! It is impossible to bring it; it has to be produced in the city. In radiopharmaceuticals there is now a tendency to shift them from natural ones towards cyclotron isotopes in order to reduce the harm caused to the patient. We know how to produce thallium. The physicians examined it and said that the isotope was good. But what the university will never be able to «manage» is to organise a pharmacopoeial article - that is, to obtain the right to use the preparation on patients. This is a very expensive procedure, involving both radiological and medical studies. We intend to do this in cooperation with the Khlopin Radium Institute, which already produces pharmaceuticals on its own cyclotron and has experience of certification.
Radiopharmaceuticals (that is, preparations labelled with radioactive isotopes) are injected intravenously, and afterwards special devices probe the person and show where, what and how. The simplest example - a study with radioactive iodine carries information about where it is localised in the thyroid gland, how the various regions of the gland work, how quickly they utilise iodine, etc. Thallium is mainly a cardiological preparation. For example, a pre-infarction condition can be diagnosed with the utmost accuracy, since with its help we can trace changes in the thickness of the walls of the myocardium.
P. Zarubin: One can also mention our studies of the radiation resistance of instruments. We studied the effect of radiation on the properties of semiconductor devices. The studies were carried out on the order of the Research Institute of Electrical Engineering and the Institute of Applied Physics.
K. Gridnev: All the equipment on spaceships is built on the basis of semiconductor technology. Around the Earth there are radiation belts, plus the radiation impact from solar flares, etc. It is necessary that these instruments work stably. In order to be confident in their operation, preliminary studies are needed: the instruments must be irradiated and one must watch what happens to them and how resistant they are. For military purposes these studies also make sense: after a possible atomic explosion the equipment must work in conditions of increased radiation as well.
V. Lazarev: It is worth noting that the spectrum of solar protons has a maximum around 6 MeV. And this is precisely the energy of our accelerator - exactly 6 MeV.
K. Gridnev: We carried out work on which elements of the skin of a spaceship are most resistant to irradiation with 6-megavolt protons. And we established in our time that one of the nickel isotopes is precisely preferable in this respect.
A. Antropov: One of the last works that we did for the Research Institute for Electronic Standards was very interesting in that we studied failures in the electronic memory of computers. In a radiation field its cells begin to «drop out», the information is spoiled, the memory «crumbles». I think that one of the reasons why the American Mars satellites stop working is their getting into radiation fluxes. We studied the process of memory «dropout» by creating uniform radiation fluxes, in order to study the probability of dropout, to know how often the information in a computer must be restored, and to exclude the possibility of accidents. Elements of solar batteries, which are exposed to protons and other radiation, were studied.
K. Gridnev: Photodiodes are also used for military purposes. For example, in the homing heads of missiles photodiodes must not react to cosmic radiation. In order that they do not react to cosmic radiation, studies must be carried out - to determine the threshold of this radiation.
A. Antropov: Another line of research is methods of elemental analysis with the help of an accelerator. Starting from ecological samples (not radiation ones, but ordinary ones) - the composition of aerosols, ceramics, alloys. Analysis on ion beams by the yield of X-rays makes it possible to carry out such analysis with high accuracy; this is the most sensitive method. It is needed by geologists - to determine very small concentrations of precious metals in ore (palladium, gold).
P. Zarubin: Or, for example, the determination of the service life of a ship's engine. By irradiating the surface one can find out how the shaft and the pistons wear out.
Ya. Volkov: To study the wear of an engine we worked with the Institute of Reliability from Belarus. We irradiated parts of a «Belarus» tractor.
V. Lazarev: X-ray fluorescence rapid analysis of alloys directly at factories. Quickly and efficiently - it can even be carried out in the street.
A. Antropov: Before a ship puts out to sea, the Institute of Water Transport used our accelerator to put radiation labels on the pistons, the rings and the shafts. And when the ship returned, it examined the oil: what the wear was, what and where, the degree of wear, so as not to replace parts unnecessarily, the ones that need not be replaced.
V. Lazarev: There is the problem of creating a gamma laser, a very grandiose one - like the creation of «Tokamaks». But some things that are part of this project we are pursuing quietly: the study of the properties of isomers, the probabilities of transitions, the selection of real candidates for the working medium of the laser.
A. Antropov: In the press the gamma laser was presented as a weapon, a very powerful and fast-acting one. For example, the idea of shooting down someone else's missile that has only just lifted off. By its thermal radiation you see that it has lifted off - on the other side of the globe, in a very small country, in Chechnya, for example. And on the ascending trajectory you shoot it down, you can destroy it with laser weapons.
V. Lazarev: This is pure science fiction, which may never come true. There are too many unsolved problems - both nuclear and solid-state ones, and those of laser pumping... But they may also succeed!
A. Antropov: And it is not necessarily a weapon. You can also use this powerful instrument for medical purposes.
Recently the department took part in work under a European ISTC grant «Alice», the «CERN» programme until 2005, and the cyclotron was used to test individual elements of the detectors planned for the work. The staff of the department modelled new types of detectors, and here they were tested. A huge installation is being prepared to work on colliding beams, so as to reach the very forefront of nuclear physics in elementary particle physics.
- I have long been intending to bring the rector here and show Lyudmila Alekseevna the largest electrophysical installation in operation - one of the few in the country! And in what conditions the research staff work, maintaining the operability of the accelerator for 10 years. For example, the head of the accelerator, Ya.V. Volkov, who receives extreme dose loads, but does not even receive hazard pay... The help of the rector's office is needed - both in cosmetic repairs and with people and equipment.
K. Gridnev: Why is applied research carried out (after all, the university is a purely scientific and educational institution)?.. The reason is very simple: in order to survive! In order to modernise the equipment, in order to be able to do science with students. In the system of the committee for education our accelerator is the only one working! Thanks to the efforts of Aleksandr Evgenyevich Antropov and Yakov Vasilyevich Volkov.
V. Lazarev: And not only in the system of our committee: in the same «Positron» there is a cyclotron, but it is standing idle. There is no money... But we have a unique opportunity - to teach physics students on the basis of the cyclotron; this is real experimental work. After all, many higher education institutions now train theoreticians, since setting up experiments requires funds and equipment.
K. Gridnev: Foreign nuclear centres are ready to take our students, and they do. Graduates of the department work in Berlin, in the USA, and in Dubna at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, at the Kurchatov Institute.
Source - spbumag
Non-elementary studies of elementary particles
First steps
Thus, as early as 1928, at the Faculty of Physics of Leningrad State University the future academician A.N. Terenin and his colleagues discovered the hyperfine structure of spectral lines arising from the interaction of atomic electrons with the nucleus, which later made it possible to measure the magnetic moments of nuclei. A graduate of Leningrad State University, G.A. Gamow, created in 1928 his famous theory of alpha decay - the first application of quantum theory in nuclear physics.
Together with G.A. Gamow, the world-famous physicists L.D. Landau and D.D. Ivanenko graduated from the Faculty of Physics of our university in 1927, and a little later the untimely deceased M.P. Bronstein, whose contribution to the theory of the nucleus is invaluable. In 1930 experimental studies of the nucleus also began at Leningrad State University; the initiator was academician P.I. Lukirsky (a discharge accelerator at 1.8 MeV, regularities of positron absorption).
In the early 1930s L.V. Mysovsky conducted classes in nuclear physics at the Faculty of Physics with a group of students, among whom was the future co-discoverer of the spontaneous fission of uranium, K.A. Petrzhak.
A new stage in the development of nuclear physics at Leningrad State University began in 1935 with the arrival of the associate professor (and later professor, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, laureate of the state prize) Boris Sergeevich Dzhelepov (also a graduate of Leningrad State University). He organised a close-knit group of students, postgraduate students and graduate laboratory assistants, among whom were the future academician and Nobel laureate A.M. Prokhorov and the later well-known nuclear physicists N.A. Vlasov and N.A. Burgov. The annihilation of positrons was studied, a magnetic analyser was developed, and measurements of beta spectra were being prepared. But these works were interrupted by the war.
The heroic period
In 1944 Boris Sergeevich Dzhelepov began lecturing on nuclear physics at Leningrad State University. By Victory Day, 9 May 1945, the first nuclear spectrum (of radioactive K40) had been obtained, and in the autumn the first graduation of students specialising in nuclear physics took place (2 people). And finally, on 26 January 1946, the Department of Nuclear Physics was established at Leningrad State University (the second in the country after Moscow State University). It was headed by Boris Sergeevich Dzhelepov; by 1950 the annual output reached 30 people.
The main direction of the scientific work of the department became nuclear spectroscopy, that is, the study of the alpha, beta and gamma radiations of nuclei, which give the key to understanding the processes going on in the depths of the atomic nucleus. Boris Sergeevich Dzhelepov was the founder and head of the national scientific school of nuclear spectroscopy.
Under his guidance the nuclear department of Leningrad State University and other nuclear spectroscopy laboratories of the country, whose basis was often a «landing party» of our graduates (the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, the All-Union Research Institute of Metrology in Leningrad, etc.), turned into scientific centres of world importance.
At Leningrad State University original precision instruments were designed and built, executed at a jeweller's level and in their time the best in the world. The energy and intensity of decay through various channels, the shape and boundaries of beta spectra, gamma and conversion spectra, the quantum characteristics of the ground and excited energy levels of nuclei and the half-lives of hundreds of unstable isotopes were measured, often for the first time in the world.
Nuclear reactions and the division of the department
By the mid-1950s nuclear physicists made up more than a quarter of the entire staff of the Research Institute of Physics of the university.
On the basis of the cyclotron laboratory, in 1957 the Department of Nuclear Reactions was created by dividing the Department of Nuclear Physics into two halves. The other half became known as the Department of Nuclear Spectroscopy. Figuratively speaking, the attack on the nucleus for the purpose of studying it proceeded, as it were, from two sides: from within (the Department of Nuclear Spectroscopy) and from outside (the Department of Nuclear Reactions). But of course it was a single research process. The Department of Nuclear Reactions was headed for 30 years by its organiser, professor Yu.A. Nemilov, and from 1987 by professor P.P. Zarubin.
The Department of Nuclear Spectroscopy was headed by Boris Sergeevich Dzhelepov. And only in 1992 did the departments merge into a single Department of Nuclear Physics, which was headed by professor K.A. Gridnev.
In 1977 the spectroscopy specialists and part of the laboratories of nuclear reactions moved to Petergof. A significant number of the researchers of the relocated laboratories came to rely on the experimental base of other institutes, cities and even republics. But at the same time let us note the group of associate professor V.A. Sergienko, which within a short time created high-class semiconductor spectrometers in Petergof. With their help the probabilities of electron capture by the nucleus and the decay energies were measured.
The move to Petergof
Viktor Olegovich Sergeev took up the study of gamma rays in a reaction on a proton beam and established the position and properties of the excited levels of many nuclei.
Yu.V. Naumov (with the participation of Olga Evgenyevna Kraft and other staff) actively studied the gamma decay of the so-called «analogue» states of nuclei, a phenomenon in the study of which the Leningrad physicists were among the first in the world. He also began to apply lasers successfully in nuclear physics.
Further work of the Department of Nuclear Reactions
Not all the laboratories of the department moved; part remained in Leningrad and successfully carried out research in the field of nuclear reactions at relatively low particle energies.
The base for the scientific research carried out by the research staff, teachers, postgraduate students and students in the field of nuclear reactions is the classical U-120 cyclotron. A more modern accelerator is also used - the MGC-20 isochronous cyclotron with variable energy. A number of works were carried out on the cyclotrons of the Radium Institute, the University of Hamburg, the University of Åbo Akademi (Turku), the university in Jyväskylä (
Finland
). At the department, by the efforts of its staff, an iron-free betatron of original design has been built, accelerating electrons to 5.5 MeV. Work in the field of higher particle energies is carried out on the accelerators of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna.
Each new generation of graduates of the department has contributed and continues to contribute to the improvement of the experimental installations and to the development and implementation of new research methods. Mainly by the efforts of the younger generation of staff, the computerisation of the experimental installations has been carried out, and programs have been developed for controlling the experiment and processing the experimental data.
Theoretical work
The theorists of the department are active. They take part in the analysis of the results obtained by the experimental groups and develop their own topics. V.A. Krutov carried out pioneering work on the explanation of the spin-orbit potential. A new theory of the nucleus has been developed, successfully describing the characteristics of nuclear states.
An original theory of the rotation of nuclei has been created. A unified approach has been developed to the analysis of the interaction of nucleons, alpha particles and heavy ions with nuclei at low energies.
The team of theorists has created computer programs for the analysis of nuclear reactions within the framework of various methods, some of them for the first time in our country (for example, the calculation of nuclear reactions by the «distorted waves» method).
The theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus is being developed by V.M. Mikhailov and his colleagues. They have revealed the laws of the «mixing» of nuclear states. A theory of nuclear vibrations was developed, levels of a special type (0+, 1+) were studied in detail, and many interesting effects were predicted on the basis of general physical conservation laws and dynamical symmetries. A.A. Listengarten is the author of fundamental works on the theory of internal conversion (that is, the phenomenon of transfer of decay energy to an electron knocked out of the atomic shell), on anomalous conversion and double conversion. Together with F.F. Karpeshin he created theories of meson and resonance conversion. He also (together with A.P. Feresin) discovered a new kind of electromagnetic moments of the nucleus, the so-called «toroidal transition» moments. V.A. Krutov created the theory of internal conversion in the field of an «electron bridge».
A large cycle of works was carried out by K.A. Gridnev and his colleagues on the theory of the correlated motion of nucleons in the nucleus and its study by the method of analysis of direct nuclear reactions. K.A. Gridnev was the first to apply the method he had developed to the study of the structure of light nuclei. To study the interaction of heavy ions he successfully used the non-linear (that is, unusual) Schrödinger equation.
Applied research
Applied research connected with the solution of important questions of industry, medicine and technology has also been greatly developed at the department. The main part of this research is carried out using the cyclotron. These are the development of new efficient methods of producing isotopes for medicine and technology, the creation of new instruments for detecting radioactive contamination, and others. The results obtained have a direct outlet into practice.
For example, studies of the resistance of materials and instruments to radioactive irradiation were used at the Institute of Current Sources and the Research Institute of Applied Physics to improve the technology of manufacturing semiconductor devices, and the study of the wear resistance of parts by the radioactive method led to a substantial increase in the service life of ship engines.
The teaching activity of the department and publications
Over the period of their existence the nuclear departments have produced more than 1000 highly qualified specialists in nuclear physics, who now work successfully in various institutes and higher education institutions, at industrial enterprises, in state and other institutions. Many students from foreign countries have studied at the departments.
Thus, at the Department of Nuclear Reactions alone more than 70 students from Cuba, China, Egypt, Vietnam, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia and Finland studied and defended their diploma works at the department.
No fewer students, postgraduate students and trainees from the countries listed above and from other foreign countries (for example, England) studied at the Department of Nuclear Spectroscopy as well.
Students do their industrial practice and carry out their diploma works also in other educational institutions of St Petersburg, and sometimes in Dubna under the guidance of the staff of the department.
Among the graduates of the nuclear departments there is 1 academician, 3 corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, about 60 doctors of science and more than 250 candidates of science; dozens of our alumni later became directors of institutes and heads of scientific laboratories and departments. More than 120 candidate's dissertations have been defended at the department by the staff, teachers and postgraduate students of the departments and of the nuclear physics division of the Research Institute of Physics of the university.
Scientific and organisational work of the department and international ties
The staff of the department have taken and continue to take an active part in the organisation and work of all-union, all-Russian and international seminars, symposia and schools on nuclear physics, including on neutron-deficient isotopes, on precision measurements in nuclear spectroscopy and on selected problems of nuclear theory.
The staff of the department and of the nuclear physics division take an active part in various scientific programmes and competitions. Thus, in 1992, in a competition for grants, out of 20 grants in nuclear physics for the whole of Russia the staff of the department won four.
The cooperation of the scientists of the department with scientists of other research organisations is very broad, both in our city (the Radium Institute, the Institute of Nuclear Physics, the Physicotechnical Institute, etc.) and in other cities (Moscow - the Kurchatov Scientific Centre, the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics of Moscow State University; Kiev - the Institute of Nuclear Physics; Kharkov - the Physicotechnical Institute; Alma-Ata - the Institute of Nuclear Physics; Dubna - the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, etc.).
The department has for many years cooperated with the University of Hamburg and the University of Åbo Akademi (Finland); ties have been established with the nuclear physicists of the University of Santiago (Cuba), the universities of Barcelona and Montreal, the nuclear research centre in Jülich (Germany), and others. The results of international cooperation are very substantial. For example, cooperation with the University of Hamburg gave the staff of the department the opportunity to work on a more advanced cyclotron, and more than 20 joint papers have been published.
Structure of the department. Laboratories and courses taught
The collective of nuclear physicists includes the staff of the Department of Nuclear Physics of the Faculty of Physics of the university and the staff of the nuclear physics division of the Research Institute of Physics of the university. The head of the department and of the division is professor K.A. Gridnev.
At present the Department of Nuclear Physics includes the following laboratories, in which scientific research is carried out and students' term papers and diploma works, master's and candidate's dissertations are prepared: the laboratory of nuclear spectroscopy - head of the laboratory, prof. V.M. Mikhailov; the laboratory of nuclear reactions - head of the laboratory, leading research fellow A.E. Antropov; the laboratory of theoretical nuclear physics - head of the laboratory, prof. K.A. Gridnev; the laboratory of high-energy nuclear physics - head of the laboratory, prof. L.V. Krasnov.
The department awards the degrees of bachelor of science (after 4 years of study and the defence of a final work), specialist (after 5.5 years of study and the defence of a diploma work) and master of science (after 6.5 years of study and the defence of a master's dissertation).
Plans and prospects
For the coming years the department is developing a cycle of new experimental works and plans a further expansion of the range of topics, both experimental and theoretical, in the study of nuclear physics and the mechanism of nuclear reactions, and in the development and improvement of research methods. Ties will be strengthened with the nuclear laboratories of the Institute of Nuclear Physics (Gatchina), the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna) and others. Active work will continue on the creation of textbooks and teaching aids and on the further improvement of the educational process.
The department has come to the 21st century in the prime of its strength and hopes to make a worthy contribution to the solution of new pressing problems of the physics of the atomic nucleus.
P.P. ZARUBIN, doctor of physico-mathematical sciences,
M.A. LISTENGARTEN, doctor of physico-mathematical sciences
Source - spbumag
The echo of Fukushima
Although one might rather speak of the stirred-up waves of old atomic phobias. After all, fear, as a rule, is based on a lack of information or on its unreliability. Besides, the destruction at Fukushima and at Chernobyl is incomparable, and the measures to eliminate them and the consequences of these two catastrophes also differ greatly. The nuclear specialists of St Petersburg University are restrained in their assessments of what is happening in Japan and are confident in the reliability of Russian nuclear power plants.
25 years ago, in 1986, a month after the accident, university physics students and with them the head of the Department of Nuclear Physics, professor K.A. Gridnev, and the dean of the Faculty of Physics of Leningrad State University, professor A.A. Trusov, went to the Chernobyl area as volunteers. The main task was to help resettle the population from the Chernobyl area and to study the current situation. And when they returned, the University received the task of monitoring, through the Department of Nuclear Physics, the environment around Petergof and Oranienbaum.
— Our staff did indeed detect traces of radioactive contamination in the Petergof area, recalls professor Konstantin Aleksandrovich Gridnev, head of the Department of Nuclear Physics of St Petersburg University. He is the only representative from Russia on the Nuclear Physics Committee of the European Physical Society. — But where did these traces come from - from the Leningrad nuclear power plant or from Chernobyl? From the decay products of the isotopes caesium-134 and caesium-137 it was established that these were traces of the Chernobyl accident... For a whole year we carried out monitoring, checked products at the markets, vegetables, mushrooms, berries. And do you know which mushroom accumulates radiation more than others? It turns out, the saffron milk cap!.. After us, special units were created in the Ministry for Emergency Situations and in the «Rosatom» corporation, which are engaged in environmental monitoring to this day.
Graduates of the Department of Nuclear Physics of the University work successfully at the Leningrad nuclear power plant in Sosnovy Bor and at other nuclear power plants, at the Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics (PINP) in Gatchina, and in the state corporation for atomic energy «Rosatom».
Protection against catastrophes
— BWR reactors, or «boiling reactors», installed at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant are not used in Russia. This is a single-circuit reactor - the steam in it is formed in the reactor vessel itself and, immediately after the steam is purified from water droplets, goes to the turbines, explained Valery Andreevich Rubchenya, professor of the Department of Nuclear Physics of St Petersburg University, senior researcher at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland), and leading research fellow of the V.G. Khlopin Radium Institute.
At the Leningrad nuclear power plant-1 the reactors are RBMK-1000, also of the «boiling» type, but they have been modified so much that they are completely different from the BWR at Fukushima. At the Leningrad nuclear power plant-2, which is being built in the same Sosnovy Bor, VVER-1200 reactors are being installed. These are two-circuit PWR reactors, or pressurised water reactors. In the vessel the water is heated, but no steam is formed there.
The heated water from the core is directed to a steam generator located separately. The radioactive water that may result from a leak of radioactivity from the fuel elements remains in the reactor vessel and does not go to the turbines. This is done deliberately - to raise the level of safety of the nuclear power plant.
The accident at Fukushima-1 was not man-made; it happened for natural, elemental reasons. All the reactors had been designed for earthquakes of magnitude 7 on the Richter scale, but they withstood an earthquake of almost 9!
— The three operating power units of the plant were shut down by the emergency automation. There was no nuclear explosion and it is impossible, professor V.A. Rubchenya is sure.
But an hour later, because of the tsunami, the electricity was cut off and the cooling of the reactors was interrupted. And their residual heat release is very large - about 10% of the power - and continues for quite a long time. The power supply there is needed constantly - in order that the cooling pumps work.
For example, in the domestic VVER-1000 reactor powerful pumps drive about 25 cubic metres of water per second, and there it is no less! But the backup diesel generators at Fukushima-1 also switched off after six hours because of the tsunami, all at once. The reactors began gradually to heat up, and the pressure of the steam being formed rose.
In Japan there is no unified power supply system. If something similar had happened here, the necessary amount of energy would have been supplied to the nuclear power plant through the electricity grid - as happened during the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station. But in Japan the power facilities belong to private owners. There was no electricity at the nuclear power plant - that is why the Japanese had to cool the reactors with sea water while there was an opportunity. And the steam that formed was vented into the atmosphere.
— At a nuclear power plant the uranium fuel (uranium dioxide) is loaded into the reactor in fuel elements (fuel rods) - zirconium tubes 9 mm in diameter. The heat released as a result of the uranium fission reaction is removed by pumping a coolant - water, which is also a neutron moderator, said professor V.A. Rubchenya. — Because of the heating of the reactor without water the fuel rods began to melt. And from the steam that interacted with the zirconium at high temperature, as a result of thermochemical reactions, hydrogen began to form. To prevent a strong rise of pressure inside the vessel, part of the gases had to be released outside, which led to hydrogen explosions outside the reactor vessel.
As a result, radioactive gases and other volatile substances were released into the atmosphere, and radioactive contamination of the environment occurred, including the coastal waters... In Russian two-circuit VVER reactors, safety measures prevent the formation of steam inside the reactor vessel.
At modern Russian nuclear power plants there are several safety barriers to prevent radioactive products from escaping beyond the reactor unit. The first level is the localisation of radioactive products in the fuel itself, which is ensured by the appropriate structure of the fuel pellets. The second level is ensured by the sealed cladding of the fuel rod. The third is the massive sealed reactor vessel. The fourth is the containment shell of the station. In modern designs, in case of severe accidents with melting of the core elements and loss of the tightness of the vessel, there is also a core melt localisation device - a special trap under the reactor, which also provides cooling of the melt. For the first time in world practice such a device was implemented at the Tianwan nuclear power plant (China) with a VVER-1000 reactor installation.
Basic course for the uninitiated, or How to see radiation?
A person is exposed to irradiation in two ways: external (cosmic rays and radioactive substances) and internal (radionuclides entering the body with food, water and air).
But with respect to radiation man is both «deaf» and «blind»; we have no natural mechanisms for registering radioactive radiation. We can «see» radiation only with the help of instruments.
So what is radioactivity? It is the spontaneous transformation of some atomic nuclei into others, accompanied by the emission of particles or quanta. Radioactive processes include: 1) alpha decay, 2) beta decay, 3) gamma radiation of nuclei, 4) spontaneous fission of heavy nuclei, 5) neutron and proton radioactivity.
The main «contribution» to the irradiation of a person is made by four types of radiation: alpha - a flux of helium nuclei, beta - a flux of electrons, gamma - a flux of gamma quanta (photons), and neutron radiation. Alpha radiation can be shielded against with a sheet of paper, beta radiation with an aluminium plate (clothing protects by 50–70%), gamma radiation with a thick layer of lead or concrete, and neutrons with any hydrogen-containing substances (a layer of water, paraffin or polyethylene).
Alpha and beta particles pose no danger to a person until they get inside the body through an open wound, with food or with air - then they become extremely dangerous. A person is exposed to external irradiation mainly from gamma radiation and neutrons, and to internal irradiation from alpha and beta radiation.
How and with what is radiation measured?
| Becquerel |
the unit of radioactivity. It shows the number of decays per unit time: 1 Bq = 1 decay per second. |
| Roentgen | the unit of exposure dose of X-ray or gamma radiation. It shows the number of ion pairs formed in a cubic centimetre of dry air. |
| Gray | the unit of absorbed dose. It shows that a kilogram of living weight has absorbed ionizing radiation energy of one Joule: 1 Gy = 1 J/kg. |
| RBE | relative biological effectiveness. This is a coefficient characterising the degree of qualitative changes in a living organism at the same absorbed dose depending on the type of radiation. |
| Sievert |
the unit of equivalent dose. Equivalent dose is the absorbed dose multiplied by the RBE. The concept of effective equivalent dose is also introduced - it is the equivalent dose multiplied by a coefficient that takes into account the different sensitivity of different tissues to irradiation (irradiating the brain or the gonads is one thing, and the left heel of the back foot is quite another...). Sievert per hour (or per year) - units of dose rate. They show the dose of irradiation received by the organism per unit time. Possible doses of irradiation |
| 50 µSv | a flight by plane from Paris to New York; |
| 1 mSv | background irradiation for a year; |
| 5 mSv | the permissible irradiation of personnel under normal conditions; |
| 50 mSv/year | the level of background radiation required by safety standards near nuclear power stations. The actual dose near nuclear facilities is much lower; |
| 0.1 Sv | the permissible emergency irradiation of the population (single); |
| 0.25 Sv | the permissible irradiation of personnel (single); |
| 0.3 Sv | irradiation during fluoroscopy of the stomach; |
| 1 Sv | the lower level of development of a mild degree of radiation sickness; |
| 6.5 Sv | severe degree of radiation sickness (practically 100% of the irradiated die) |
There is no alternative to the atom
The accident in Japan echoed all over the world. The old question of the safety of the «peaceful atom» and of the possible replacement of nuclear power by other kinds has surfaced again. Germany announced a check of the safety of its reactors, and some nuclear power plants were closed «for re-registration». In Italy a referendum on the use of nuclear power plants will be held at all. But with the present volume of industrial energy consumption, nuclear power plants are hardly likely ever to be closed.
The leaders in the share of atomic energy in the power industry of an individual state are France (75%), Slovakia (53%) and Switzerland (40%).
Other countries: Japan - 30%, the USA - 19%, Russia - 18%.
— If in the modern world we want to enjoy the fruits of technical progress, we will constantly increase our energy consumption. And today there is no alternative to nuclear power, professor K.A. Gridnev is convinced. — The European Physical Society worked on a programme for the development of nuclear power in Europe and issued recommendations to the governments of the EEC.
— Scientists all over the world are persistently looking for new efficient and safe methods of producing energy to meet the growing needs of the world economy. Many hopes are connected with «green» technologies - solar batteries, wind installations, tidal stations. But hopes for their significant contribution to the power industry in the foreseeable future are hardly justified.
The prospects of thermonuclear power are planned to be verified as a result of experiments on the international ITER installation being created in France. It is also necessary to take into account the «environmental friendliness» of these technologies at all stages of the creation and operation of the equipment.
All talk about «green» technologies does not stand up to criticism. Solar energy can be obtained only on a small scale. And besides, the production of solar batteries is very environmentally unfriendly, and they are short-lived, said professor V.A. Rubchenya. — The uranium emissions from the operation of thermal power plants are much greater than from nuclear power plants. After all, uranium, thorium and their decay products are present in many deposits, albeit in small quantities. And when you burn millions of tonnes of fuel, the emissions of radioactivity there are enormous.
Many specialists are sure that the nuclear industry is indeed facing a revolution. But nuclear power plants will not be phased out - on the contrary, new types of nuclear power plants will be developed, intended to replace the old, less reliable ones.
In Japan almost 70% of those polled have a negative attitude to nuclear power, since they are not sure of its reliability (such data were obtained even before the accident at Fukushima-1).
But the country is not going to stop its fifty reactors, and has not abandoned the plans according to which 9 new nuclear power plants should appear by 2020 and 14 by 2030... Germany at first put on the «brakes», but later also decided not to phase out nuclear power, so as not to depend on purchases of electricity from neighbouring France.
«The lesson of Fukushima-1 for Russia, said the head of the «Rosatom» corporation Sergei Kiriyenko not long ago, is to accelerate the creation of new types of reactors, more advanced and safer, and to move faster away from the reactors of previous generations».
For example, today nuclear power plants use uranium-235 - the same as in atomic bombs, but there is only 0.72% of it in natural uranium. And the share of the other isotope, uranium-238, accounts for more than 99% of natural uranium. However, at nuclear power plants it was practically not used, since it does not ensure a self-sustaining nuclear reaction. At present nuclear power plants burn less than 1% of natural uranium, which is clearly inefficient. It is necessary to create an efficient nuclear fuel cycle for a fuller use of the uranium extracted. Hopes are connected with the development of breeder reactors, in which the number of fissile nuclei burned is less than the number of fissile nuclei newly accumulated. In our country a fast-neutron reactor operates at the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant; it is a prototype of such reactor installations. Nuclear power is one of the few high-technology industries in which Russia has a noticeable competitive advantage.
The nuclear charge of the department
The inter-faculty teaching laboratory of nuclear processes provides fundamental and systematic training of St Petersburg University students in the field of theoretical and experimental nuclear physics. The laboratory uses a rich arsenal of means for carrying out nuclear physics experiments. Not only physics students study in it, but also students of other natural science faculties (geographers, geologists, chemists, biologists and specialists in applied mathematics). They study the basics of dosimetry, radiometry and spectroscopy, carry out laboratory experiments with ionizing radiation sources, and learn to work with detecting apparatus.
— Many know that the dose rate of irradiation depends inversely on the square of the distance to the source, says Vladimir Iosifovich Zherebchevsky, head of the laboratory of nuclear reactions and of the teaching laboratory of nuclear processes. — But it is one thing to know this fact theoretically and quite another to see it in practice. Here, on the laboratory bench, the student places a gamma radiation source, and here a detector. And, moving the source along the ruler, he sees how the readings of the detector change. From these figures one can independently check the formula of the inverse dependence.
The practical course in nuclear physics is part of the educational standard for physicists of St Petersburg University of all specialisations, and not only for nuclear specialists. And the students are not in the least afraid of working with radiation.
— It is not the specialists who are afraid of radioactive irradiation, but ordinary people, professor K.A. Gridnev shrugged. — But after all, in the laboratories - from the teaching sources - the radioactivity is the same as on the granite embankment of the Neva. And the background radioactivity in the streets of St Petersburg frightens no one... By the way, a small radioactivity is apparently even good for the organism. Among the staff of our department there are many long-livers: one professor was still working at the age of 98, and at present 87-year-old and 88-year-old staff members work at the department.
The Department of Nuclear Physics of our university is one of the two oldest nuclear departments in Russia; it was founded in January 1946. In 65 years the department has produced about 1600 specialists. Among them are three academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The department trains nuclear specialists of wide profile, who can work both in research institutes (PINP in Gatchina, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, the Kurchatov Institute, etc.), at the Leningrad nuclear power plant, in the «Rosatom» corporation, and in foreign nuclear centres.
The possibilities of scientific research on the basis of the department are broad. The cyclotron installed here can accelerate alpha particles up to 27 MeV, and this is the most powerful accelerator of such particles in the north-west of Russia. With its help a large range of problems can be solved. To use it in modern medicine: to obtain isotopes, for example, for diagnostics on a PET (positron emission tomograph) - the most perfect instrument in the field of brain research. It is also possible to produce radiopharmaceuticals (that is, preparations labelled with radioactive isotopes). They are injected intravenously, and then special devices probe the person and show where, what and how. For example, with the help of the isotope thallium-199 one can diagnose a pre-infarction condition with the utmost accuracy, tracing changes in the thickness of the walls of the myocardium.
In the laboratory of nuclear reactions a system was developed for monitoring beams of charged particles extracted from various cyclotrons. This made it possible to visualise the profile of the cyclotron beam in on-line mode, which considerably improved the system of extracting this beam from the cyclotron, increased the intensity of the beam on the target and reduced the time needed to guide the beam to the target. This beam monitoring system is an original development, has no domestic analogues and can be used on various cyclotrons to improve the mechanisms of beam guidance. All this, ultimately, will lead to higher yields of the necessary radioisotope products.
The cyclotron can also be used in technology. Here failures in the electronic memory of computers were studied and the service life of a ship's engine was determined. Methods of elemental analysis on ion beams were used to study the composition of aerosols, ceramics and alloys. This most sensitive method is needed, for example, by geologists - to determine very small concentrations of precious metals in ore (palladium, gold).
— We carried out work to study which elements of the skin of a spaceship are most resistant to irradiation with 6-megavolt protons. We also studied the apparatus of spaceships, irradiating the instruments and studying how resistant they are. Around the Earth there are radiation belts, plus the radiation impact from solar flares, etc. It is necessary that these instruments work stably, said professor K.A. Gridnev.
But, unfortunately, the staff of the Department of Nuclear Reactions spoke of their achievements in the past tense. Since October 2009 a ban on work with ionizing radiation sources has been introduced at St Petersburg University.
The licence of Rospotrebnadzor and the corresponding conclusion of the sanitary and epidemiological service have expired - and have still not been renewed. The teachers of the department cannot train fully qualified specialists, cannot conduct the physics practical course on the cyclotron. The students study only theory. International scientific agreements are being disrupted, for example on training specialists for Myanmar.
— Nuclear power in Russia today, as in all countries, is a business. And new requirements are being placed on university graduates, professor V.A. Rubchenya believes. — It is necessary to revise and develop new master's programmes of study, so that graduates of the University can join in the development of the fundamental problems of nuclear power of the new, 4th generation. We are ready to do this. But the department needs new equipment. Without it it is impossible to train a modern specialist.
The university nuclear physicists are ready to continue actively developing scientific research in order to find new kinds of nuclear energy and develop new types of nuclear reactors.
Evgeny GOLUBEV
Boris Sergeevich Dzhelepov (On his sixtieth birthday)
Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, professor Boris Sergeevich Dzhelepov is one of the pioneers in the field of research on the atomic nucleus in our country, the founder and head of the Leningrad school of nuclear spectroscopists, under whose direct or indirect influence almost all the research laboratories of nuclear spectroscopy in the USSR arose.
B.S. Dzhelepov was born in 1910 in Odessa in the family of an office worker. He studied at secondary school in the town of Novgorod until 1915. In 1926-1927 he studied according to the programme of the 1st year of the university on his own, since he was not accepted because of his age, and he entered the Faculty of Physics of Leningrad University in 1927. In 1931 Boris Sergeevich began to work at the Physicotechnical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Leningrad, of which he was a member of staff until 1945. From 1935 B.S. Dzhelepov also worked at Leningrad University (where he became an associate professor when he was not yet 25 years old). Working in the 2nd physics laboratory of Leningrad State University, B.S. Dzhelepov did much for the development of this laboratory and for raising the level of the work in it.
The beginning of the scientific activity of B.S. Dzhelepov coincided in time with the discovery of artificial radioactivity. In the very first works, published back in 1934-1935 (together with A.I. Alikhanov and A.I. Alikhanyan), the radiation of the radioactive nuclei nitrogen-13, aluminium-26, phosphorus-30 and others was studied, and the influence of the nuclear charge on the shape of the beta spectrum was investigated. In the thirties B.S. Dzhelepov was the first to design a spectrometer for measuring the energy of an electron-positron pair in radioactive decay.
At the same time the work of B.S. Dzhelepov began at Leningrad University on the training of nuclear physicists, though before the war only individual students studied nuclear topics under the guidance of Boris Sergeevich.
In 1943-1944 B.S. Dzhelepov was in the Soviet navy; he took part in the work on the demagnetisation of ships.
In the summer of 1944 the nuclear physicists whom I.V. Kurchatov had planned to bring into his laboratory were recalled from the fronts of the Patriotic War and demobilised; among them B.S. Dzhelepov was demobilised. For three months he worked with I.V. Kurchatov in Moscow, but then returned to Leningrad and continued to work at Leningrad University, and from May 1945 he became a member of staff of the Radium Institute.
After his return to the university Boris Sergeevich created a special nuclear physics laboratory at Leningrad State University, gathered a team of capable young staff and actively joined in scientific research on nuclear physics. Already in 1945 the first graduation of students specialising in nuclear physics took place, and in January 1946, on the basis of the laboratory of B.S. Dzhelepov, a department was created - now the Department of Nuclear Spectroscopy - which he headed. Since then the department has trained more than 400 specialists in the field of atomic nucleus physics, who now work in various laboratories, research institutions and higher education institutions of the Soviet Union.
B.S. Dzhelepov is a talented lecturer; with his clear, witty lectures, maintained at a high scientific level, he has forever won the hearts of many students for his beloved science - nuclear physics.
One of the main achievements of B.S. Dzhelepov in science is the creation of new precision instruments - beta and gamma spectrometers of various types and various purposes, but always distinguished by an original conception and jeweller's execution. Thus, he (together with other staff of the laboratories headed by B.S. Dzhelepov at Leningrad University, the Radium Institute and the All-Union Research Institute of Metrology) created the ketron (a spectrometer of conversion electrons), the ritron (a gamma spectrometer using recoil electrons), the elotron (a magnetic gamma spectrometer with improved focusing), gamma and beta hodoscopes and many other instruments.
On these instruments a huge number of various radioactive isotopes was studied in the most varied aspects, from the establishment of decay schemes and the measurement of lifetimes to the study of the neutrino mass, resonance scattering and the annihilation of positrons. At the same time Boris Sergeevich put forward original ideas about the properties of mirror nuclei (the properties of higher-order mirror nuclei), applied to the study of nuclear the idea of isobaric multiplets in nuclei that had arisen shortly before, and for the first time (1951) pointed to the possibility of proton radioactivity of nuclei, the existence of which has only just been confirmed by experiment. Subsequently the main attention was given to the study of the structure of nuclei in the region of large static deformations. The study of neutron-deficient radioactive isotopes, which unfolded on a broad front under the guidance of B.S. Dzhelepov (Dubna, Leningrad), made it possible to reveal many new important details of their structure (a report at the II Geneva Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, a cycle of works awarded the university prize, and other works, including works on the systematics of quadrupole moments of nuclei, of nuclei with K=1/2, of O+, 1- levels in deformed nuclei). Much attention is given by Boris Sergeevich to the creation of various kinds of tables necessary for successful work in the field of nuclear spectroscopy (tables for the analysis of beta spectra, tables of beta decay energies, tables of atomic nuclei, nuclear masses, the fundamental reference publication «Decay Schemes of Radioactive Nuclei», widely known in our country and abroad, without a «consultation» with which no work in the field of nuclear spectroscopy begins, etc.)
B.S. Dzhelepov is the author of more than 400 scientific works; more than 30 candidate's and doctoral dissertations have been defended under his guidance, and among his pupils (former and present) there are about 20 doctors of science and 2 corresponding members of the Academy of Sciences. The activity of B.S. Dzhelepov as an organiser of science was vividly manifested in his organisation of the Annual Conferences on Nuclear Spectroscopy and the Structure of the Atomic Nucleus (the 21st conference has now been held). In their time these were the only place where all physicists actively working in the field of nuclear research could regularly meet and exchange ideas, and today these conferences play an essential role in the scientific life of the country. B.S. Dzhelepov is also the initiator and organiser of numerous conferences on the spectroscopy of neutron-deficient isotopes and on nuclear theory in Dubna.
One cannot fail to mention also the nuclear seminar of Leningrad State University created by B.S. Dzhelepov, the first permanently operating seminar on nuclear physics in the USSR, which at a certain stage was the centre that attracted all the Leningrad physicists interested in nuclear physics and working on this problem, a seminar that played a notable role in the education of nuclear physicists. Finally, one must note the great work of B.S. Dzhelepov as the editor of many publications, including the journal «Izvestiya of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, physical series».
The scientific, organisational and pedagogical activity of B.S. Dzhelepov in 1953 was marked by a government award - the order «Badge of Honour». in 1953 it was marked by a government award - the order «Badge of Honour».
All the pupils of B.S. Dzhelepov, his colleagues, comrades and friends warmly congratulate Boris Sergeevich on his sixtieth birthday and wish him health and further success in his glorious activity of knowing the secrets of the atomic nucleus and educating new generations of researchers.
K.Ya. Gromov, V.M. Lobashov, L.K. Peker, V.G. Solovyev, M.A. Listengarten, A.V. Zolotavin
Advances in the Physical Sciences
Memories of a Teacher
On the 100th anniversary of the birth of Boris Sergeevich Dzhelepov
More detailed information about the life and activity of Boris Sergeevich Dzhelepov is contained in the excellent articles of M.A. Listengarten devoted to the anniversaries of Boris Sergeevich and of the department, published in the journals «Izvestiya of the Russian Academy of Sciences, physical series», «Advances in the Physical Sciences», «Vestnik of Leningrad State University», in the newspaper «Leningrad University» and others.
An outstanding scientist
Boris Sergeevich Dzhelepov was an outstanding scientist. His name was widely known in the USSR and far beyond its borders. In the course of his life he carried out an enormous volume of scientific research.
He began his scientific activity on the study of the interaction of alpha particles with matter in 1934 at the Physicotechnical Institute together with Alikhanov and Alikhanyan. They were among the first scientists to observe artificial radioactivity, whose discovery was announced in the same year by the Joliot-Curies. Subsequently, working as an associate professor in the 2nd physics laboratory of the Faculty of Physics of Leningrad University, Boris Sergeevich managed to create the Department of Nuclear Physics in January 1946, and then to establish spectrometric laboratories at the Radium Institute named after Khlopin and at the All-Union Research Institute of Metrology. In all three divisions work unfolded on the creation of precision, unique spectrometers for studying the radiation of natural and artificial radionuclides - alpha, beta and gamma spectrometers of various types and purposes. In all, more than 15 precision spectrometers for their time were designed and built, namely: four lens ones - one for studying beta spectra and conversion electrons (P.A. Tishkin), a lens spectrometer with electron acceleration, a twin beta spectrometer for studying time correlations of electrons (V.A. Sergienko), a superconducting solenoid type (V. Myasnikov), a spectrometer with triple focusing (O.E. Kraft), small and large ketrons and a spectrograph with a constant uniform field (A.A. Bashilov), a universal magnetic beta spectrometer (A.V. Zolotavin), a beta spectrometer with focusing at an angle (A.V. Zolotavin, E.P. Grigoryev, V.O. Sergeev), beta and gamma hodoscopes (O.V. Chubinsky-Nadezhdin, Yu.N. Podkopaev), the ritron and elatron (S.A. Shestopalova and others), scintillation and semiconductor spectrometers and others. On these spectrometers large-scale studies of both natural and artificial radionuclides were carried out. The latter were synthesised at various accelerators, but for the most part at the synchrocyclotron with a proton energy of 660 MeV in Dubna.
The nuclear radiation from hundreds of radioisotopes was studied - their excitation spectra, the structure and quantum characteristics of nuclear states were determined, and decay schemes were constructed. The number of scientific publications in which Boris Sergeevich is the author or co-author exceeds 700. Of these, more than 20 are books and monographs. Books such as «Beta Processes in Nuclei», «Development of Complex Nuclear Decay Schemes», «Nuclear Spectroscopy Standards» and the series of publications «Modern Methods of Nuclear Spectroscopy» (1983-85), and numerous reviews of the properties and characteristics of atomic nuclei, were and remain reference books for nuclear physicists; a large number of tables and reference books were also compiled: tables for the analysis and processing of nuclear beta spectra, for the determination of electron boundary energies, reduced probabilities, etc.; reference tables of nuclear masses, gamma-ray energies, nuclear decay schemes, etc.
Among the significant scientific predictions made by Boris Sergeevich are the prediction of proton radioactivity, which was discovered 20 years after its substantiation by Boris Sergeevich; of the finite value of the neutrino mass, whose value was estimated several decades later; and the study of similar states of nuclei, which were the forerunners of the discovery of analogue states, and their description with the help of a new quantum characteristic - isospin. Studying the resonance scattering of gamma rays by nuclei, he came very close to the discovery of recoilless emission.
It should be noted that he never became a co-author of scientific works to which he had not made a decisive or significant contribution. Attempts to include him were, of course, made. But he categorically rejected them. Boris Sergeevich valued his scientific name very highly. All the research was carried out very thoroughly, and a large number of control experiments were done. An example of such research is the detection of a very weak direct transition with an energy of 2500 keV in Ni-60 in the decay of Co-60. By this work Boris Sergeevich showed that discoveries can be made on well-studied isotopes. So many control experiments were done that the existence of this transition aroused no doubt in anyone when Boris Sergeevich spoke about it at the seminar.
Boris Sergeevich not only valued his scientific image but also prized scientific achievements above all. The following fact can serve as evidence of this. In the 1970s of the last century domestic industry began to produce AI-4096 amplitude analysers for scientific research. Moscow friends, at my request, by «going round» the ministries and main administrations, obtained one unit for the department. For this they asked that Boris Sergeevich express his gratitude to them in writing. Despite my requests, he confined himself to the oral form.
Organiser of science
Boris Sergeevich was an outstanding organiser of scientific research in nuclear physics. In this respect his activity is similar to that of such well-known scientists as A.P. Aleksandrov and B.P. Konstantinov. Indeed, in 1946 he created the Department of Nuclear Physics at Leningrad State University, which he headed uninterruptedly for 42 years. Twelve years later, on his initiative, a second department was formed there - the Department of Nuclear Reactions, which was for a long time headed by Yu.A. Nemilov. In the same period laboratories of nuclear spectroscopy were created and developed under the guidance of Boris Sergeevich at the Radium Institute and at the All-Union Research Institute of Metrology. Somewhat later, with his participation or on his initiative, similar laboratories arose at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (in Dubna), in the cities of Riga, Tashkent, Sukhumi, Alma-Ata and others. As noted above, in these centres of world importance a large number of high-precision instruments were designed and built and an enormous amount of scientific research on radionuclides was carried out.
In 1950 Boris Sergeevich Dzhelepov held the first post-war conference of the country's scientists on nuclear spectroscopy and the structure of atomic nuclei, and subsequent conferences acquired the status of international ones. Since then these conferences have been held annually. Hundreds of scientists from different countries took and still take part in their work. In all, Boris Sergeevich held 46 such conferences. As a rule, the conferences were held in the capitals of the union republics - Moscow, Kiev, Riga, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Tashkent - and in large cities such as Kharkov, Samarkand and others. These forums, which took place at the end of January and the beginning of February each year, that is, during the student vacations, were attended by all the staff of the department, as well as by the 4th and 5th year students. The conferences lasted about 10 days. People got to their destination by plane, were accommodated in the best hotels of the cities and dined in restaurants. All at the expense of the state. Also, starting from 1958, on the initiative of Boris Sergeevich, annual conferences on the properties of nuclei far from the stability line were held in Dubna. He held 25 conferences. I was present at many of them, but what I remember most is the first, at which I spoke with a report on my work on the study of time correlations of conversion electrons of neutron-deficient nuclei. The number of participants was small - about 20 people. It is also memorable because the financing of the conference was carried out by the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research.
Besides the Dubna conferences and international conferences, Boris Sergeevich organised and held schools on nuclear physics and seminars on precision measurements in nuclear spectroscopy. At these events lectures were given and problems of nuclear physics and methods of determining the physical characteristics of atomic nuclei were discussed. In all he held 9 schools and 11 seminars. The schools and seminars were usually arranged near large cities (Riga, Vilnius, Pskov, Saratov, Novorossiysk, Tashkent, etc.), often on the basis of holiday homes. I happened to attend 4-5 schools; two near Saratov and Novorossiysk, and the rest in the mountains of Uzbekistan. The latter made a special impression on me; they were situated in paradisal corners surrounded by orchards and vineyards. The schools were held at the expense of scientific institutions.
One cannot fail to note the merit of Boris Sergeevich in the organisation and conduct of the scientific seminars of the department. This is the first seminar on nuclear physics at a higher education institution in the country. The first session of the seminar took place in 1944. The seminar continues to work weekly at the present time; the number of sessions has exceeded 1900. For a long time, until 1975, that is, until the department moved to the town of Petrodvorets, the scientific seminar of the department was city-wide. Nuclear physicists of the University, the Radium Institute, the Physicotechnical Institute, the Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics, the All-Union Research Institute of Metrology and other centres took part in its work, as well as scientists from Moscow, Dubna, other nuclear institutions of the USSR and from abroad. Particular interest was aroused by the sessions of the April Fools' seminars, at which as yet undiscovered and unusual nuclear phenomena and properties of nuclei and microparticles were examined and discussed. In all the above-mentioned gatherings of scientists - all-union conferences, international conferences, schools and seminars - Boris Sergeevich took the most active part, both as a leader and as a speaker and lecturer.
Head of the department and of the research laboratories
Boris Sergeevich was a distinctive leader of the teaching and research collective of the department and of the research collectives of the laboratories of the Radium Institute and the All-Union Research Institute of Metrology. He was a firm upholder of one-man command; one might even speak of a certain «personality cult». However, his actions were completely free of elements of dictation and arbitrariness, and there were no cases of the use of force or administrative resources. By virtue of his high personal and professional qualities Boris Sergeevich enjoyed unquestioned authority. The logical and reasoned justification of his proposals led to a deep conviction of the correctness of the decisions he took.
His leadership was based on broad democracy, just as in the whole USSR. Here are some features of his leadership:
1. At the department there was a council of teachers - professors, associate professors and senior research fellows. It also included the trade-union organiser and the party organiser. The council was conducted either by the head or by his deputies. The council considered many questions of the life of the department, including personnel and financial questions - questions of salaries, bonuses and others. At that time bonuses were often given - 2-3 times a year. It is characteristic that the council never once nominated Boris Sergeevich or his deputies for a bonus, one of whom was at one time P.A. Tishkin. To attempts to include P.A. Tishkin in the list he replied: «If the dean's office considers it necessary to give me a bonus, then it will do so». The candidature of Boris Sergeevich was simply excluded.
2. He decided all questions of the life of the collectives himself. He never delegated leadership to anyone. His assistants, deputies or heads of laboratories carried out his instructions exactly.
3. It is known that Boris Sergeevich had women in the collectives he headed. But he did not allow any of them to have any advantages over other staff, much less to set the «weather» in the collective. Of course, some tried to do so, but this apparently did not find support with Boris Sergeevich. Besides, they got on splendidly together.
4. For Boris Sergeevich the main thing in life was science. He did not go into the mutual relations of the staff and tried not to listen to their complaints about one another; he resolved conflict questions objectively with the participation of the interested parties. I remember such a case. Measuring the spectra of conversion electron coincidences on the spectrometer at night, I was forced, in place of a scaling instrument that had broken down, to take one from P.A. Tishkin, whose installation - a lens beta spectrometer - was nearby. In the morning I went off to sleep. P.A. Tishkin, discovering the absence of the instrument, complained to Boris Sergeevich. The latter on one of the days gathered Tishkin and me together to discuss this case. Without lectures or reprimands a decision was taken - if something similar happens in the future, one must leave a note or, if possible, inform the owner of the instrument as soon as possible. The conversation took place in a friendly atmosphere.
5. Boris Sergeevich readily made contact with the public organisations - the trade-union and the party ones. He patiently listened to their representatives and expressed his opinion, but never interfered in their work. It must be noted that at that period both the scientific and the social life at the department, at the faculty and at the University as a whole was very extensive and rich. The trade-union organisation held celebrations of memorable dates - 7 November, New Year, 23 February, 8 March, 1 May and Victory Day. These were noisy gatherings with a feast and amateur performances, and in honour of the New Year - with a fir tree, music and dancing. At the end of May or the beginning of June the «White Nights» seminars were held, with visits to such places as the construction site of the university in Petrodvorets, the seaport in the harbour on Vasilyevsky Island, the Leningrad nuclear power plant and others. After the move to Petergof, shashlik parties were arranged in the countryside during the May holidays. The anniversaries of the staff of the department were celebrated in restaurants. This was in addition to the faculty and university events - ceremonial sessions, concerts in the Assembly Hall of the University, evenings of rest and others. Quite often there were also outings to the theatres, the Philharmonic and festive concerts. I remember a visit, headed by Boris Sergeevich, to the S.V. Obraztsov puppet theatre.
Teacher and educator
Boris Sergeevich was an excellent teacher, a brilliant lecturer and an attentive educator. For a long time he gave the main course on nuclear spectroscopy. His lectures were attended not only by students but also by many members of the department's staff, staff of the department of radiochemistry of the Faculty of Chemistry and staff of the Radium Institute. His lectures were distinguished by complete clarity, a high scientific and physical meaningfulness, and a certain artistry. Everyone who had occasion to listen to him remembered his clear presentation of the material, laid out point by point. His numerous presentations at scientific conferences, schools and seminars were distinguished by the same features. His presentations at the seminar of the Research Institute of Physics, like those of the rector A.D. Aleksandrov, aroused enormous interest. In the number of reports he delivered at sessions of the scientific seminar of the department no one has so far surpassed him; that is, to this day he is the champion in the number of reports. The lectures of Boris Sergeevich for schoolchildren, held annually with a demonstration of the activation of matter by neutrons, aroused enormous interest. All the schoolchildren of Leningrad flocked to these lectures. The large physics lecture hall in the old building of the Research Institute of Physics of the university was packed full, as they say, «there was no room for an apple to fall» - all the aisles were occupied.
He selected the staff for the department and for the research collectives of the laboratories very carefully. He treated them very kindly, politely and correctly. He never allowed himself at sessions of the department or of the council to reprimand, make remarks or read lectures; he confined himself only to recommendations and advice. I remember that at one of the sessions of the department, when duties were being distributed for holding the next conference in the city of Leningrad, I was entrusted with looking after one of the demonstration installations. For some reason I did not carry out this assignment and expected unpleasantness. But Boris Sergeevich did not say a single word about it. As a scientific supervisor he was very accessible - 1-2 times a week he held office hours at the department, and one could telephone the Radium Institute or his home at any time.
He demanded from the teachers an attentive attitude to the students and often met with the latter. He took part in joint tea parties of students and teachers. Boris Sergeevich, together with the staff of the department, attended the lectures of other teachers. I also remember attending the lectures of A.A. Bashilov on experimental methods of nuclear physics and neutron physics. At sessions of the department the polling of the opinions of the members of the department began with the young staff. At conferences, schools and seminars young scientists and postgraduate students also had priority in setting out their ideas and views.
Boris Sergeevich had hundreds of pupils. He trained a great many highly qualified specialists in nuclear physics. From among his pupils grew three academicians, several corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and dozens of doctors and candidates of science, directors of institutes and laboratories.
A citizen and a human being
Boris Sergeevich was a man of high civic duty. During the Great Patriotic War he served in the Red Army and was engaged in the mine clearance of warships. After demobilisation he worked with I.V. Kurchatov on the atomic problem. He was one of the first to understand the promise of the development of nuclear power and the need to train specialists in nuclear physics for the atomic industry and the institutions of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He gave all his talent and strength to the training of cadres and the development of scientific work in the USSR. Besides his great organisational, pedagogical and scientific work, for 30 years he was the editor-in-chief of one of the leading journals, «Izvestiya of the Russian Academy of Sciences, physical series», and headed the nuclear spectroscopy division of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. All his activity was imbued with the spirit of patriotism. He always stressed the great role and significance of national science and its achievements. This is also evidenced by the numerous published collections of scientific works on nuclear spectroscopy and other reference literature on certain branches of nuclear physics. Of course, he valued the achievements of science abroad, but he never bowed down before it.
As a person, Boris Sergeevich was simple in manner, kindly, responsive and accessible; one could discuss any questions with him. By virtue of his high personal qualities, Boris Sergeevich concentrated in himself and in his work all the best that existed and was propagated at that time - honesty, decency, high scientific conscientiousness, selflessness, responsiveness and kindness - and was the embodiment of the high moral qualities of a man of the era of socialism. Personally, that period of the life of the department left me with a very pleasant and enthusiastic impression.
V.A. Sergienko,
associate professor of the Department of Nuclear Physics
Source - the journal St Petersburg University
On the path to European integration
In this process the EPS has the leading role. Founded at the end of the 1960s of the last century, when the tendency towards the unification of national scientific structures began to dominate in Europe, the EPS served as a solid foundation for such integration.
The main tasks of the physical society are participation in the organisation of the scientific process in Europe, the dissemination of information about advanced physical achievements among various strata of civil society, including state, political and public structures, the organisation of conferences and meetings, exchanges between scientists of various institutes and laboratories, the performance of advisory functions for the authorities, and much else. Much attention is given to contacts between physicists of the West and East European countries: for this purpose a special group, East-West, has been created, which coordinates the work of the whole society on establishing and deepening these contacts.
The EPS unites a many-thousand-strong body of physicists of the states of Europe. The society itself is divided into 14 scientific divisions, some of which in turn are divided into sections. In the Nuclear Physics Division, for example, there are about 600 scientists. The work of the division is directed by a Committee consisting of representatives of different countries of Europe, one from each country. At various times Russia has been represented on this committee by academician Yu. Oganessian (JINR, Dubna) and professor Yu. Novikov (PINP RAS, Gatchina). Now professor K. Gridnev has taken up the baton.
Associated members also take part in the work of the society; these include such large scientific centres as CERN (Geneva), JINR (Dubna), DESY (Hamburg), GSI (Darmstadt), CEA Saclay (Paris), Nordita (Copenhagen), the Philips corporation and many others. The EPS actively cooperates with other physical societies: the American, Japanese and Australian ones. Under the auspices of the EPS many scientific journals of the publishing houses Elsevier, Springer Verlag and others are published. News in science and in the life of the society is promptly reported by the journal Europhysics News. The prestige of the EPS can be judged by the gallery of distinguished names of its presidents: G. Bernadini, H. Casimir, M. Jacob, R.A. Richi, H. Schopper, A. Zichichi, A. Wolfendale.
As is well known, an integral part of the scientific process is the lively exchange of information about scientific achievements between researchers. The EPS makes wide use of such a means, tried over decades, as the organisation of international conferences. Almost every year the Nuclear Physics Committee of the EPS gathers scientific conferences on a very wide range of questions of atomic nucleus physics and adjacent problems. Russian scientists also take part in the organisation of such conferences.
In the last few years the star of Petergof has risen as a summer residence of international scientific meetings. Various conferences succeed one another, and their participants pay due tribute not only to the wonders of the microworld but also admire the beauties of the surrounding environment in the season of the white nights. Konstantin Aleksandrovich Gridnev was one of the first who paved the way for this peculiar pilgrimage to the fountains of discoveries and palaces.
The election of Konstantin Aleksandrovich Gridnev as a member of the EPS Committee is a tribute of respect by foreign colleagues to the prestige of St Petersburg University - the forge of specialists of the highest qualification, the alma mater of a galaxy of outstanding physicists of our time. Many graduates of the Department of Nuclear Physics of St Petersburg University, pupils of professor K.A. Gridnev, enhance the authority of the university by working in domestic and foreign laboratories.
Congratulating Konstantin Aleksandrovich on his election to a prestigious European scientific committee, one would like to wish him great success in this difficult and responsible work for the benefit of Russian science and education. It is no secret that they are in need of effective support precisely now, and let us hope that in the person of professor K.A. Gridnev we shall have an experienced pilot on the path to European scientific integration.
Yu.N. Novikov, professor of the Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences
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Other articles on the history of the department
Article about Boris Sergeevich Dzhelepov on Wikipedia Memoirs (M.Ya. Amusya, p. 60)
Article author: Andrei Olegovich