Март 2000г.

Российская наука и мир (по материалам зарубежной электронной прессы)

CONTENTS / ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ


• Cyprus interested in Russia's high technologies -Minister
• Russia reports more than 30,000 infected with HIV
• Collisions Of Galaxies Create Cosmic Weather System
• Russian Environmentalists Targeted
• Russia's Potato Blight Worse Than Irish Famine's
• Hacking in Russia Is Serious
• Holographic Dimensions, Inc. Appoints Dr. Vitali Prisicar As Director of Research and Development
• Russia Proposes To Store Spent Fuel Environmentalists Decry Nuclear Plan
• Duo Dodges Bullets in Russian Roulette
• Reviews the book 'Red Atom: Russia's Nuclear Power Program from Stalin to Today,' by Paul R. Josephson
• Why Trotsky was denied asylum
• Russia's Putin Backs Mir, International Space Lab
• Astronomy Olympiads in the Caucasus
• St. Pete 'Cowboy' Happy to Travel
  

Согласно конфиденциальным документам, полученным активистами окружающей среды, российское министерство атомной энергетики составило проект грандиозного предложения заработать $ 21 миллиард в последующие 10 лет, импортируя 20,000 тонн использованного ядерного топлива из азиатских и европейских стран для хранения и возможной переработки его в Сибири.
Активисты защиты окружающей среды, которые провели кампанию за полную остановку импорта использованного ядерного топлива Россией, резко критикуют план Минатома. "Это нравственно недопустимо," сказал Алексей Яблоков, советник по окружающей среде бывшего российского президента. "Они хотят, чтобы будущие поколения оплатили экономическую выгоду этого поколения."

The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry has drafted an ambitious proposal to earn $21 billion over the next 10 years by importing 20,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel from Asian and European countries for storage and eventual reprocessing in Siberia, according to confidential ministry documents obtained by environmental activists. The plan, which is aimed at cashing in on a worldwide shortage of secure storage sites for spent nuclear fuel, has alarmed environmental groups, which argue that Russia risks being turned into a nuclear dumping ground for richer countries. U.S. officials oppose the idea for fear it would add to the already huge Russian stockpiles of plutonium, a key ingredient in building a nuclear bomb.
"This document appears to fly in the face of American efforts to halt [nuclear fuel] reprocessing in Russia and the separation of plutonium," said Tom Clements, executive director of the Washington-based Nuclear Control Institute. "Any action that increases the stockpile of plutonium in Russia will only heighten proliferation concerns about that country."
While the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry, also known as Minatom, has made no secret of its desire to earn precious hard currency from the storage of other countries' nuclear waste, the draft documents provide new details about the Russian recycling proposals, which are more extensive than previously understood in the West. The documents, which appear to have been drafted last fall and bear the signature of Deputy Minister Valentin Ivanov, were obtained by the environmental group Greenpeace from anti-nuclear campaigners in Russia.
A Minatom spokesman, Vitaly Nasonov, confirmed the target figure of $21 billion for the storage and reprocessing plan, but described it as "a very rough estimate" of "maximum" possible revenues. The estimate is based on the predicted emergence of a huge market for spent nuclear fuel storage because of unsatisfied demand from such countries as Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany and Switzerland.
Implementation of the Minatom plan would require a change in Russian environmental laws that prohibit the import into Russia of nuclear fuels from all but a handful of former Soviet Bloc countries. Such a change is possible, as the political pendulum has been shifting in Russia against costly environmental protection programs.
A more serious obstacle, in the view of Western nuclear experts, is that countries such as Japan and Taiwan acquire their nuclear fuel from the United States and therefore must get U.S. government approval for its disposal. Other countries, such as Germany, are unlikely to break ranks with Washington on a sensitive nonproliferation issue.
Disclosure of the detailed Minatom proposals comes at a time when the United States is seeking to negotiate a moratorium on future plutonium production with Russia. Last month, U.S. officials suggested that the moratorium was practically a done deal, but Russian officials have cast a more cautious spin on the negotiations, insisting that they are merely at a "preliminary" discussion stage.
Plutonium, a fissile material used for making nuclear bombs, is one of several byproducts of the reprocessing cycle. In contrast to the United States, which does not produce plutonium for civilian purposes, Russia has long advocated a "closed" nuclear cycle in which plutonium can be separated from spent nuclear fuel and then used to power civilian reactors. While it is not ideal for bomb-making, civilian plutonium is perfectly acceptable for use in crude nuclear devices.Undersecretary of Energy Ernest J. Moniz, who flew to Moscow this week to continue discussions with Minatom, said it was safe to say "the U.S. would not agree to any project that involved reprocessing" by Russia of American-origin nuclear fuels. He said the fact that Minatom "might be exploring the [reprocessing] options" did not undermine "the shared goal" of a "suspension" of plutonium production.
In a late-night phone call from Moscow, Moniz sought to square the Minatom proposal for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel after 2020 with the U.S. proposal for a moratorium. He said the Russians agreed with the United States that there was "no merit in further accumulating plutonium" over the next few years, even though they wanted to preserve a long-term option of reprocessing. Some U.S. experts believe the Russians are pursuing a dual-track strategy, keeping their options open to see which path turns out to be most profitable. Russian Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov "is looking for new business for his industry," said Matthew Bunn, a nuclear expert at Harvard University. "Whatever new business he can find, he will go with." Under the Minatom plan, the spent nuclear fuel would be transported to Russia by road and rail, as well as by barge through the Russian river system. Reprocessing would begin after 2020, following the completion of a new reprocessing plant in Ozersk, which already has the reputation of being one of the most polluted places on the lanet.
Environmental activists, who have been campaigning for a total halt on the import of spent nuclear fuels by Russia, were sharply critical of the Minatom plan. "It is morally unacceptable," said Alexei Yablokov, environmental adviser to former Russian president Boris Yeltsin. "They are asking for future generations to pay for the economic benefit to this generation." Tobias Muenchmeyer, a nuclear expert with Greenpeace International, the organization that disclosed the Minatom plan, expressed skepticism about a promise to reserve around $3 billion for tackling ecological problems. "Even if they spent this money, it is not all that much," he said, noting that the U.S. government has earmarked $100 billion for cleaning up much less contaminated sites.

В прошлом месяце двое ученых, один из России и один из Украины, обвинявшиеся органами госбезопасности своих стран в серьезных преступлениях, выиграли дело. Это значит, что судебные системы молодых демократических государствах, не склонны механически утверждать обвинения против ученых. Эта победа, наряду с недавним оправданием Российского активиста окружающей среды, является огромной моральной поддержкой для ученых бывшего Советского Союза, которые публично убедительно защитили своих коллег.

Last month, two scientists, one from Russia and one from Ukraine, who were charged with serious crimes by the security apparatuses of their respective countries, won victories suggesting that the judicial systems in these young democracies are not inclined to rubber-stamp trumped-up accusations against scientists. These victories, along with the recent acquittal of a Russian environmental activist, are huge morale boosters for scientists of the former Soviet Union, who have forcefully and publicly defended their colleagues.

Рецензия на книгу: "Красный атом: программа ядерной мощи России от Сталина до наших дней."

The Soviet Union embraced nuclear power not simply as a source of military strength but as a symbol of scientific and economic prowess. This work traces the development of the nuclear power program that ultimately spawned such spectacular disasters as Chernobyl and appalling problems of nuclear contamination, which are growing worse over time as old reactors are junked and radioactive wastes spew into the sea, air, and land. The high quality of Soviet science was not enough to counteract the slovenliness and even recklessness of the Soviet bureaucracy.
One of the author's shrewdest observations is that Soviet "nuclear culture" reflected some of the fundamental characteristics of communism. Unfortunately, the material legacy of that ideology will remain long after its adherents are gone.

Britain refused asylum to the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky in 1929 because the Labour government feared alienating Joseph Stalin, de facto dictator of the Soviet Union, according to cabinet papers released by the public record office yesterday.
Trotsky tried four times to come to Britain after he was expelled from Moscow, including asking to live in the Channel Islands in 1934. The top home office civil servant advised the cabinet on that occasion he would need watching as well as protecting: "He has failed to impose his ideas on the [ruling] politbureau in Russia but he has not abandoned them; the idea of Trotsky in quiet retirement is comic."
His request stirred parts of the labour movement and such figures as HG Wells, the Webbs, JM Keynes, CP Scott (editor of the Manchester Guardian), GB Shaw, Clem Attlee and James Maxton.
Trotsky was famous as the man who led the Red army to victory in the civil war, and as an eloquent Marxist author, but he was outmanoeuvred by Stalin on Lenin's death and his supporters were persecuted or liquidated. Stalin was to succeed in having him assassinated in 1941.
Arguing for asylum, HG Wells said Trotsky had a "trenchant literary power" and his extraordinary career gave him a "hold on the public imagination" living in Britain with "a constitution that has not broken down, and an army that has not broken up" would help change Trotsky's "present state of mind". Wells reminded ministers England was the "home of so-called dangerous opinions as well as of lost causes".
Trotsky - dubbed The Man Whom Nobody Wants - first applied after Labour's election win in 1929. The Manchester Guardian, as go-between for Trotsky's friend, Mme Paz (Magdelaine Marx), and the home secretary, JR Clynes, passed on undertakings he would not be politically active.
Sidney Webb told the home secretary he had advised Trotsky to apply privately so ministers could consider the matter: "But he appears carried away by Labour's electoral success - and characteristically is so addicted to posturing before the whole world - that he forgot to heed my warning."
The government gave no public reasons for rejecting Trotsky, causing protests from unions, including the NUT, and Labour MPs. Clynes's secret paper to the cabinet makes plain why he was kept out: "[Trotsky] had been expelled from Russia as a result of a profound divergence of opinion with Stalin on the method to be pursued to achieve their common end.
"His admission might be regarded as an unfriendly act by the Soviet government, and [it might allege Britain] was using him as a means of weakening the government in Russia, and to strike at the prestige of the Third International and the Soviet regime as a whole.
"Trotsky's supporters in other countries,France and Germany, would be encouraged and it would have its effect on their communist parties ... he would almost certainly become a centre of intrigue against a goverment with whom we want to enter into friendly relations. It would be futile to expect him to abstain from politics."
And, wrote Clynes, the mass of the British public regarded Trotsky only as "one of the Bolsheviks who made the Russian revolution" and would see his admission as "shaking hands with murderers".

И.о. президента Владимир Путин, посетивший космический учебный центр недалеко от Москвы, известный как Звездный городок, гордость российских космонавтов и космических инженеров, сказал, что Россия будет стремиться работать на Международной Космической станции, но это не следует рассматривать как звон похоронных колоколов для собственной стареющей космической лаборатории Мир.

MOSCOW, (Reuters) -- Acting President Vladimir Putin said Thursday Russia would work to get an International Space Station into orbit but should not see this as the death knell for its own aging Mir space lab.
Russian news agencies quoted Putin, who visited a space training center outside Moscow known as Star City, as praising Russian cosmonauts and space engineers.
Mir was due to be scuttled this year but got a new lease of life when foreign investors agreed to pay $20 million to fund further missions on the craft, which is currently unmanned. The United States has voiced worries that plans to extend the life span of Mir was causing Russia to drag its heels over a $60 billion project to build an International Space Station. "Russia will fulfill all its commitments in this (International Space Station) project," RIA news agency quoted Putin as saying. He also said Mir should be maintained.
Mir, plagued in recent years by accidents and funding difficulties, remains for many Russians a powerful symbol of the former Soviet Union's scientific prowess.
"This is the place where those people trained who guaranteed our country's breakthrough into space, who showed in practice how the space program is not a prestige project but an essential one," Itar-Tass news agency quoted Putin as saying. Mir, the first section of which was launched 14 years ago, was originally designed to last five years. Last month a group of investors led by an American millionaire set up MirCorp and announced plans to rent the station and create a space hotel.
Russian-built living quarters for the International Space Station, grouping the United States, the European Union and Japan, are due to take off from Russia's cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, later this year.

В статье дается информация о Международной олимпиаде по астрономии, проведенной в Специальной Астрофизической Обсерватории Российской Академии Наук. Рассказывается об Астрофизической Обсерватории, приводится описание радиотелескопа RATAN-600.

NEAR THE VILLAGE OF ZELENCHUKSKAYA in the Caucasus Mountains lies the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Its 6-meter (236-inch) telescope was once the largest in the world. For three autumns beginning in 1996 this facility has played host to a multinational gathering of talented high-school students participating in the International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO). Here students get a chance to compete in their knowledge of astronomy and astrophysics, make new friends, and be introduced to foreign languages and cultures.
The IAO was founded by the Euro-Asian Astronomical Society to help develop astronomical proficiency among young people, guide them in choosing science careers, and improve astronomy and science teaching in secondary schools. The first event, held November 1-8, included 17 students from Russia, Finland, and Sweden; Moscow participated as a separate entity. The following year Armenia and India joined, and in 1998 there were representatives from Bulgaria and Brazil. That year I took part as an observer from Denmark, where astronomy recently became part of the curriculum for students 15 to 18.
Each country can enter as many as five students in two age categories: three 15-16 and two 17-18. Students are accompanied by two adult team leaders, usually astronomy specialists or educators. The Olympiad is financed mainly by fees paid by the participating countries.
The Special Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) is situated in the Karachaevo - Cherkesia Republic, a member of the Russian Federation. SAO operates two major facilities: the Academy of Sciences Radio Astronomy Telescope (RATAN-600) and the 6-meter Large Altazimuth Telescope (BTA), Russia's largest radio and optical telescopes, respectively. For the six days of the 1998 Olympiad we lived in the village of Nizhnij Arkhyz, where living quarters, workshops, a school, and other facilities have been built for astronomers, staff, and guests.
Getting there wasn't easy; Nizhnij Arkhyz is far from common travel routes. The accommodations were spartan but nice - team leaders had a small apartment with a bedroom, bath, toilet, and living room with TV. The rest of the group stayed in two-bedroom apartments. During the first two days we experienced a slight inconvenience due to the ongoing economic crisis in Russia: there was no hot water. Funds available to the observatory for such amenities have been drastically reduced (S&T: September 1992, page 254). Nevertheless the building heat was eventually turned on, a blessing also much appreciated by the residents of Nizhnij Arkhyz!

Galaxies to Sunspots

The official languages of the Olympiad are Russian and English. The team leaders are responsible for translating the test questions into other languages. Olympiad students complete three rounds of examinations -theoretical, practical, and observational. In the theoretical examination the students are allowed to use only pocket calculators. A typical question: "There are about 250 million stars in the elliptical galaxy M32 (a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy). The total visual magnitude of this galaxy is 9. If the luminosities of all the stars were equal, what would be the visual magnitude of a single star in M327?"
The practical exam is more complex. For example,one subject of the 1998 Olympiad was the spectroscopic binary star Capella. The students were given a sheet plotting the orbit of the 1st-magnitude companion relative to the zero-magnitude primary. The orbital data were obtained by ground-based observatories, including the BTA, with speckle interferometry. Using this orbit diagram, radial-velocity curves for both components, the orbital period, and Capella's parallax, the students had to determine the mass of each star.
Another problem involved the spectrum of the edge-on spiral galaxy FGC (Flat Galaxy Catalogue) 1908 in Draco, photographed with the BTA, in which the spectral lines were shaped like a stretched S. The students were expected to explain the spectrum's appearance, estimate the mass of the galaxy, and compare it to that of the Milky Way. In both cases students were encouraged to discuss sources of errors and how much they probably affected the calculated results. Such questions represent real problems similar to those tackled by professional researchers. The students also carried out observations. During the day, they observed sunspots with 60-millimeter refractors. They were asked to draw the spots and label their drawings with north, south, west, and east. This was a little tricky due to the diagonal used. Finally, students had to compare their drawings with radio scans of the Sun obtained by the RATAN-600 on previous days and make deductions. In the evening students were handed copies of simple all-sky charts and instructed to find at least five visual double stars. Afterward they were asked to find these stars with the 60-mm scope (without using the charts), estimate the components' position angles, brightnesses, and colors, and explain the observed differences. The Brazilians thought the test was somewhat "hemisphere biased" as their knowledge of the northern sky was limited compared to that of the other participants. However, the organizers compensated for this by giving them more time to complete the task.
The exercises are prepared by the IAO organizing committee. The theoretical exams are checked and graded by a jury of representatives from each country, while the practical and observational results are evaluated by the observatory staff. At the closing ceremony all participants receive diplomas. Winners of the first, second, and third prizes are also honored. In 1998 Bulgaria won three first prizes, while India, Russia, and Moscow had one each.

Giant Telescopes

We also had special tours of the RATAN-600 and BTA facilities. The RATAN-600 consists of 895 movable reflecting panels, each measuring 2 by 11.4 meters, arranged in a ring more than a half kilometer across. Its total collecting area, including the 400-meter-long linear array inside the ring, is more than 25,000 square meters or roughly one-third that of the 305-meter dish at Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Five horn-type feed systems at the focus can make simultaneous observations at up to five wavelengths between 1 and 50 centimeters. The telescope is currently used to study quasars, active galaxies, interstellar matter, solar-system objects, and, in the future, fine structures in the cosmic microwave background radiation. Twenty kilometers southwest is the 6-meter BTA reflector on 2,100-meter Mount Pastukhov. For probably all of us, the trip to this observatory was the culmination of our stay. The BTA's 42-ton mirror was the world's largest from 1976 to 1991, when the first of the 10-meter Keck telescopes went into operation in Hawaii (S&T: June 1992, pages 626 and 628). The dome housing the telescope is huge - 53 meters high and 44 meters in diameter. We were told that the dome of one of the Keck telescopes could fit inside it! Towering north of the building is the giant service crane for lifting heavy parts and equipment. Between the crane and the dome is the sarcophagus containing the telescope's original, defective mirror. After a tour of the BTA's telescope chamber and control room, our last stop at this astronomical paradise was the SAO's nearby 1-meter Zeiss telescope.
Students also went on tours to nearby medieval sites, took mountain hikes, and played soccer, including a match between a Brazilian-Bulgarian-Russian team and an All-SAO team. On the last evening the team leaders celebrated the Olympiad's success with champagne and vodka. The students, of course, also had their own parties, and at the closing ceremony several groups performed cultural presentations. Departure was a long and tearful affair.
Last autumn the fourth Olympiad was held on September 25th to October 2nd at the famous Crimean Astrophysical Observatory and Sternberg Astronomical Institute's Crimean Laboratory in Nauchnyj, Republic of Crimea. More than 25 students from six countries took part, with an observer and jury member from Sweden.
This year's IAO will be held in late September or early October either at the SAO or the Bulgarian National Astronomical Observatory Rozhen near Smolyan; the decision should come by mid-March.
Contact: Michael G. Gavrilov, IAO coordinating council chairman, Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute Ave., 15, 142432, Chernogolovka, Moscow Region, Russia;
fax +7-096-57-64-111; gavrilov@issp.ac.ru; www.issp.ac.ru/univer/astro/ioas_e.html.
In addition, Sweden, Bulgaria, Kazakstan, Brazil, and India are currently investigating the feasibility of hosting future Olympiads in their respective countries.
The IAO is just one branch of the International Science Olympiads. Others are held for biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, and information science. For more information about these events visit: www.issp.ac.ru/univer/olmi/.

Бывший профессор генетики Санкт-Петербургского университета, уставший от жизни российского ученого и убежденный, что еще можно найти счастье, почти 20 лет назад оставил работу в лаборатории и отправился путешествовать по США и Австралии на лошади и верблюдах. Сейчас он вернулся и пишет книгу о своей "ковбойской" жизни. Он надеется заработать достаточно денег, чтобы отправиться в мае из Санкт-Петербурга в Москву на повозке, запряженной лошадью.

ST. PETERSBURG, -- Anatoly Shimansky is no drugstore cowboy. As a man who has logged thousands of kilometers by horse and camel through the United States and Australia, he is also no stranger to the open road.
One of the few people east of the Mississippi River who can legitimately lay claim to being a cowboy, Shimansky has quickly become St. Petersburg's best known, and perhaps only, cowboy-in-residence.
Formerly a professor of genetics at St. Petersburg State University, Shimansky, 59, left behind the confines of his laboratory almost 20 years ago, tired of the life of a Russian scientist and convinced that happiness lay elsewhere.
Eventually he landed in the United States, where he began to travel around the country, getting his first taste of life on the open road.
"Even then, when I first was traveling by car around the U.S., I was amazed at how friendly and generous people were to me," Shimansky said. Years later, after a stint in England, he returned to the newly renamed St. Petersburg and attempted the wheeler-dealer life of a New Russian. "I tried to live a conventional life. I was a scientist, then a businessmen as some New Russian friends of mine have become, but I was terrible at it and most importantly, not happy," the cowboy said. "I am only completely happy and at ease when I am traveling."
Finally, deciding to leave his import-export business behind, he returned to the United States in 1996, purchasing a horse and buggy and setting his sights on a slow trek across the northern stretches of the country from New York City to Seattle.
Striking a unique pose on the back roads of the United States in his horse-drawn Amish carriage with a banner reading "From Russia With Love and Peace," Shimansky quickly achieved his 15 minutes of fame, meeting with politicians, becoming an honorary citizen in various states and attracting offers of food, supplies and places to sleep during his eight-month journey.
At each stop along the way, he added to his scrapbook - already several hundred pages long - of mementos, photos, articles and handwritten notes from all the people who helped him out along the way.
Using his American trip as a model, Shimansky chose Australia as his next destination, both for its language - he speaks English fluently - and its exoticism.
This time, though, he would travel with two camels he purchased for $1,000 apiece to travel along the eastern seaboard of Australia. According to the Russian cowboy, the animals are even slower than horses and allowed him to better see and understand thecountry he was traveling through.
Armed again with his scrapbook, he found the same welcoming reception from the locals down under, meeting everyone from cattle ranchers to prisoners in work gangs to touring members of the Moscow Circus, who invited him to perform in their show. (He refused, saying he was too busy.)
Shaking his head as he looked at a picture of a Rubenesque blonde in his scrapbook, he said, "And women, they are the worst. Always wanting you to spend more time with them. I spent three days with her and I just couldn't take it anymore. I had to leave and get back on the road."
Shimansky is now back in St. Petersburg writing a book about his travels, entitled "Australia Seen Through Russian Eyes, or A Camel Spit in My Face." He hopes to earn enough money for a trip in May by horse and buggy from St. Petersburg to Moscow.
"I wasted so much time when I was young in a job I didn't enjoy," he said. "To think that from an early age I could have been traveling around the world, seeing different countries and cities, and always as a bum."

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