NLMK Group, an international steel company with operations in Russia, the USA and the European Union, has supplied dynamo steel to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (based in Dubna) for the construction of a unique accelerator complex in Russia, a NICA collider (Nuclotron-based Ion Collider Facility).
The international NICA complex mega-science project is aimed at studying the properties of nuclear matter at the highest baryonic densities in a lab context. Such matter existed only at the early stages of the evolution of the Universe and in the interiors of neutron stars. The project will enable fundamental matter research at the highest densities and temperatures attainable on Earth.
NICA energy zones have a unique interdisciplinary and innovative potential, enabling experimentalists to carry out research in material sciences, nano- and picotechnology, medicine, biology, electronics, nuclear energy and safety, cryogenic and superconducting technology, and space exploration programs.
The 380 tons of dynamo steel supplied to the Institute by NLMK will be used to make 186 superconducting electromagnets of the accelerator complex storage ring. This is where heavy ion beams are going to collide at a speed close to the speed of light.
Ilya Gushchin, NLMK Group Vice-President, Sales, said: “NLMK technologies guarantee the highest quality of steel products for different applications. We were selected as suppliers for the NICA project following successful testing of an experimental batch. Tests confirmed the required stability of properties and a very high level of accuracy of the magnetic parameters of our steel. We have many years of experience in manufacturing electrical steel, accounting for over 70% of dynamo steel produced in Russia.”
NLMK Group’s dynamo steel is produced at the Lipetsk site. The group owns exclusive production technology rights to 27 different grades of electric steels.
Representatives of over 30 countries are involved in the NICA project. Contracts have been signed with many organizations in Russia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, Poland, etc. Currently, the infrastructure of the accelerator complex is being set up, and detectors are being manufactured. Pilot launch of the collider is planned for 2020, with ramp-up in 2023. (NLMK/Ukrainian metal)