On 08 August, a visit to the laboratories of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research was organised for the participants of the International Computer School that is annually held in Dubna.
The visit began with the Laboratory of High Energy Physics, where A. Galimov acquainted the children with the principles of charged particle acceleration and gave them a tour of the superconducting magnets assembly hall of the NICA accelerator complex under construction.
The acquaintance with accelerators continued within the walls of the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions. A.Voinov delivered an introductory lecture on the synthesis of new elements of Mendeleev's Periodic Table, which was followed by a visit to the accelerators IC-100 and U400M guided by V. Semin.
One of the participants, I. Chistyakov, a 9-year school student of School No. 10, Serpukhov, commented: "Most of all I was amazed by the scale of this complex and the scope of the costs required for conducting experiments. For example, to synthesize superheavy elements, it is necessary to continuously make nuclei collide for several days, accelerating them in the machine, the mass of which exceeds 2000 tons, at the same time the costs of electricity being 10,000 rubles per hour."
