Under a new ruling, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, near Moscow, has the same legal status of an international organization in Russia as CERN enjoys in its host countries.
“On Ratification of the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and JINR on the Location and Terms of Activity of JINR in Russia” was approved by the Russian Parliament on 22 December and signed by the acting president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin on 2 January.
On the scientific front, milestones at JINR in 1999 included the first successful test of the beam slow extraction system of the superconducting Nuclotron and also the start up of the new methane cryogenic moderator for experiments with cold neutrons at the IBR-2 reactor.
JINR’s prestigious Bruno Pontecorvo prize for 1999 was awarded to Raymond Davis of Brookhaven for his outstanding achievements in developing the chlorine-argon method for solar neutrino detection.
