Physics World
Ukraine crisis: updates on the response from the physics and astronomy community
06 Mar 2022
Michael Banks
06/03/2022:
● The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)
reported today that a building at the Kharkiv Research Institute of Physics and Technology had been struck by rocket fire. Built in 1928, the institute soon became a world-leading centre for low-temperature physics. In the 1930s, the physicist Lev Landau (who in 1962 was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics) led the institute’s theoretical physics department and together with the physicist Evgeny Lifshitz, the pair began writing a 10-volume
Course of Theoretical Physics, which is still widely used as a graduate text.
Today, the institute carries out research into several areas including solid-state physics and plasma physics. The institute is also home to an experimental neutron facility — dubbed
Neutron Source — that can produce medical isotopes for cancer treatment and is also used for training. The facility, which was built in 2015 with the help of Argonne National Laboratory in the US, includes a linear accelerator that produces 100 MeV electrons with a beam power of around 100 kW. These electrons are then fired at a (natural) uranium or tungsten target to produce neutrons that drive a “subcritical assembly” of 37 nuclear fuel cells.
The SBU noted that the missiles were fired from a “Grad” launcher although there were no indications that the building housing the Neutron Source had been damaged. “The destruction of nuclear facilities and storage facilities could lead to a large-scale environmental catastrophe,” the SBU notes.
05/03/2022:
●
The Breakthrough Prize Foundation, which was inaugurated in 2012 by the Israeli-Russian venture-capitalist
Yuri Milner,
says it will make an emergency donation of $3m towards an international relief organisation that is helping victims of the conflict. “Stephen Hawking was convinced that humans must gain control over our aggressive instincts in order to survive,” the statement notes. “We owe it to ourselves, and the whole planet, to embrace our highest qualities.” ...
●
Some 58 Breakthrough laureates, which include Witten, Alan Guth and Kip Thorne, came out with their own open letter, stating that they have watched Russia’s “unprovoked attack with horror”. “President Putin’s actions are cold-blooded, senseless, and entirely unjustified, violating both international law and the fundamental human rights of the Ukrainian people,” the laureates write. “We stand in admiration of the many Russians, inside and outside the country, who have spoken out against this evil, including scientists, writers, and people from all walks of life. Many have done so at great personal risk, and we commend them for their courage”. The prize winners also note their profound admiration for the “bravery and sacrifice [of the Ukrainian people], which serve as a beacon to all who struggle for democratic self-determination and freedom.”
04/03/2022:
● The European Commission
has suspended co-operation with Russia on research and innovation. It says it will “not conclude any new contracts nor any new agreements” with Russian organizations under the €96bn
Horizon Europe programme and is suspending payments to Russian entities under existing contracts. “All ongoing projects, in which Russian research organizations are participating, are being reviewed,” the statement notes. ...
● Over 150 Russian scientists who work on experiments at the CERN particle-physics lab near Geneva
have penned an open letter expressing their “sorrow and regret” about the situation in Ukraine. “We stand against the military actions initiated in Ukraine by the authorities of Russian Federation,” they write. “We stand strongly for resolving the conflict through diplomacy and negotiations as the only appropriate way.” ...
https://physicsworld.com/a/ukraine-c...omy-community/
️ Russian troops shell nuclear research facility in Kharkiv.
