The PIK research neutron reactor, currently near completion at the Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics in Gatchin, Leningrad region, will be energetically launched in two years, news agency RIA Novosti reports citing Yaroslav Shtrombach, deputy director for nuclear technologies of the Kurchatov Institute.

According to Mr. Shtrombach, reactor has been physically launched, and the project is on the way to energetic launch.

Construction of the PIK reactor started in Gatchin, near St. Petersburg, back in the 1970ies. However the project had to be reconsidered after the accident on Chernobyl nuclear power station, and construction was frozen. In late 2011 – early 2012 the reactor was physically launched, as it was loaded with òîïëèâíûå ñòåðæíè and tested at minimal capacity. Energy launch will mean the reactor's reaching its projected annual capacity of 100 MW.

The reactor will become a source of powerful neutron beams that will be used at experimental machines for “lighting” various materials and studying structure on molecule and atom level.