Friday, October 29 Prof Jiangang Li, Director of ASIPP and Prof Alexandr Ivanov, Deputy Director of Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (BINP, Russian Academy of Science) signed an Agreement for Scientific and Technical Cooperation in the Field of Development of Steady State Neutral Beams based on Positive Ions for Fusion Research. More than ten people from two institutes and FRC/Texas University witnessed the signing, including five other BINP scientists, Dr Huang He of FRC, and Prof Hu Chundong, Head of Neutral Beam Injection Division.

BINP delegation paid a 5-day visit to ASIPP. During their visit, the guests visited EAST and HT-7 tokamaks and NBI lab. The scientists from two sides exchanged their research results and shared NBI R&D ideas, had a deep discussion on future bilateral cooperation. Based on the conviction that the steady state neutral beams for plasma heating in magnetic fusion devices can significantly contribute to controlled nuclear fusion researches, the two sides entered into a cooperation agreement for scientific research on "Steady State Neutral Beams based on Positive Ion Source".

According to the agreement, two institutes will work jointly on the development of an RF plasma driver operating in steady state, a power supply for RF plasma driver, a plasma chamber, advanced power supplies, grids and so on. At the same time, the two sides will exchange results obtained during research in the field covered by the agreement in the form of reports, publications, and working documents, exchange scientists for the purpose of joint research, issue joint publication and conference presentations and train graduate students.

Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (BINP) was founded in 1958 as a part of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, it’s the largest institute of Russian Academy of Sciences. Its founder was the prominent Soviet Physicist Andrei Mikhailovich Budker (1918-1977). Former President Jiang Zemin was very impressed when he visited BINP and Siberian Science Town in 1998.