On 22nd of June 2023, a delegation from the U.S. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory “Chamberlain Travis” made a working visit to INP. The purpose of the U.S. delegation's visit was to hold technical meetings and negotiate contracts regarding the status of project work for the Nuclear Forensics Center. As part of the visit, a program had been drawn up for the delegation, where the guests familiarized themselves with the operation of the control panel of the research reactor WWR-K, visited the Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility (RWDF) and assessed the work performed by the Institute for the project work.
In the second part of the working visit, the U.S. National Laboratory delegation met with the General Director of the Institute, Sayabek Sakhiyev. During the meeting, the General Director made a presentation. In the presentation, the General Director spoke about:
-The structure of the Institute; Basic electrophysical facilities;
-The main directions of scientific and production activities of the Institute;
-Publication achievements of scientific staff, pointing out that the INP takes first place among the research institutes of the Republic of Kazakhstan by the number of published works in the database Web of Science for 5 years.
-Major international partners with more than 30 organizations, such as CERN, MIT, JINR, Chiyoda Corporation and etc
During his speech, the General Director noted that the Institute has a very great experience in training personnel for the nuclear industry of the RK. He emphasized that the INP has entire necessary infrastructure for training specialists for NPPs, in particular, a research stationary reactor, a critical reactor assembly, various types of accelerators and 3 training centers supported by the IAEA that are operating on the basis of the Institute:
-Training Center of Radiation Safety;
-Training Center of Non-Destructive Testing methods;
-Nuclear Security Training Center.
Activity, which is to train personnel for the nuclear industry, it was also noted that 9 IAEA experts work at the Institute. Also during the meeting, the General Director noted the importance of opening the Regional Center for Nuclear Forensics, emphasizing its great contribution to strengthening nuclear security at the international level.
In addition to the presentations, the meeting also discussed:
-Holding a seminar on electric wave technology;
-Technical issues regarding the project of the regional center for nuclear forensics;
-Conducting construction and engineering surveys in the buildings where the regional center will be based.
