MPEI – Ghent University Collaboration Development

​From the 25 to the 26 of February, 2019, the talks about the collaboration of MPEI with Ghent University, Belgium, were being held at our university.

On the 25 of February, 2019, a lecture of Guido Emile Van Oost from Ghent University of Belgium was presented at MPEI. It was dedicated to the thermonuclear plasma physics issues and addressed to the students of the Institute of Thermal and Nuclear Power Engineering. The report had had a great success. Students were informed about contemporary directions of the controlled thermonuclear fusion. Professor Van Oost is an author of more than 650 scientific publications, a founder and an organizer of a number of international conferences, co-author of the Master course in Fusion Technology created in the framework of the FuseNet and edited by IAEA. It consists of 13 chapters written by EU Fusion program experts and is in use all over Europe and beyond.

On the 26th of February at the Department of Foreign Relations at MPEI a discussion of collaboration with Ghent University took place. From the part of our university Alexander Tarasov, MPEI Vice-Rector on International Relations, Head of international Administration Sergey Shirinskii, Department of General Physics and Nuclear Fusion professor Vyacheslav Budaev were present. Head of the Department of Foreign Relations Elena Gulicheva made a report on MPEI to the guests from Ghent University, Belgian Nuclear Center SCK/CEN and ITER Project Center. During the visit the issues of organization of Double Degree Program on the Master level within the collaboration in the Fusion-EP were being discussed, as well as other important points.

On the 26th of February, 2019, at MPEI the conference on the neutron testing of fusion materials was held. The main goal was to discuss the prospects of collaboration between Belgian Nuclear Center SCK/CEN and MPEI, as well as participation to the MYRRHA project.

In the framework of the session in the conference hall of the Administrative Building of MPEI Dmitry Terentyev, Head of the MYRRHA project of the Belgian Nuclear Center SCK/CEN, made a report.

NPP SCK/CEN – Center for Nuclear Research of Belgium – has been founded in 1952. In 1956 the first reactor – BR1 (Belgian Reactor 1) has been started. It is still in use for scientific purpose, i.e. for producing radioisotopes for medical and industrial needs. Further, BR series was extended by the BR2 and BR3 reactors. The last reactor started on the NPP SCK/CEN is Venera, was created in 1964 and used for scientific purpose only.

The MYRRHA project is a megaproject with the budget around 600 million Euro. Its objective is to create conditions for the bombing of various targets with production neutron fluxes with different characteristics for testing materials of future thermonuclear reactors on the basis of ionic producers. This project is unique and the participation in it gives way to a broad cooperation in the up-to-date domains of research. Dmitry Terentyev, Head of the MYRRHA project, has been shown the unique research stands of MPEI, high-power electron beams and Product Lifecycle Management plasma installation. He has proposed as well to open the collaboration with MPEI and other Universities and Research Centers in the domain of fusion testing. He also announced possible Material Science postgraduate program, potentially giving new chances for MPEI students.