On January 15-16, a delegation from the Institute of Nuclear Physics (INP), headed by General Director Sayabek Sakhiyev, visited two research laboratories of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the world's leading universities.
PhD-student Alexis Devitre from the Plasma Science and Fusion Center gave the first excursion to the KEV-laboratory, where technologies are developed to study the properties of materials after they are irradiated at particle accelerators. In particular, TG-spectroscopy (Transient Grating Spectroscopy) is one of these technologies. Researcher Angus Wylie from the Mesoscale Nuclear Materials Group introduced the principle of TG-spectrometer operation to the delegation of INP, which is based on the reading of spatially periodic excitations induced in the near-surface layers of a material by a laser beam. This technology refers to non-destructive methods of analyzing material properties.
The second excursion took place at the MITR Research Reactor Laboratory under the supervision of its director, Gordon Kohse. The 6 MeV reactor, which was built in a water-type reactor, similar to the one at the INP, is used for research on the properties of materials under extreme conditions, as well as for testing reactor fuel assemblies.
Opportunities for joint research were discussed during these excursions. Moreover, Prof. Sayabek Sakhiyev invited Director Gordon Kose to act as an expert consultant for the construction of a new research reactor at the INP site, which should be a prerequisite for the potential selection of a foreign vendor of NPP technologies in Kazakhstan.
