At an extended directorate meeting, the results of the Laboratory’s work in 2020 were summed up. Despite the extremely difficult conditions due to the coronavirus pandemic, the VBLHEP team has achieved good results by the end of this year. The most significant result of the year is, of course, the launch of the Booster – the third synchrotron in the history of JINR. After a long and tense period of its assembly, on November 12, the commissioning work began, on December 5, the cooling of the magnetic cryostat system was started, on December 11, after a comprehensive check, the first currents were brought in and on December 19, all systems were launched. The beam circulation appeared as soon as the gate was opened at 19:30. Thus, the highest quality of assembly and all preparatory work was confirmed. Since then the Booster has been successfully run, and today a bunched beam is circulating in the beam pipe.
The work on the construction of the main unit of the MPD facility, its magnetic system, has also demonstrated remarkable progress. The assembly of the magnet yoke was suspended in the summer at the initiative of Italian specialists, who were not confident in the possibility of ensuring the required accuracy here. However, when they arrived in Dubna and carried out control measurements, they were convinced otherwise and gave a confident “go-ahead” to complete the installation. The magnetic circuit is assembled and ready for integration with a superconducting solenoid, the arrival of which from Italy was widely reported in almost all mass-media.
