Russia to take part in 2nd phase of Large Hadron Collider upgrade - Medvedev
GENEVA. June 10 (Interfax) - The Russian authorities intend to take part also in the second phase of upgrading the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) out of their belief in the need for national contribution in global scientific projects of this kind, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.
"Of course, we are rightly proud of our achievements, of what is being done at the main centers in our country, but on the other hand, such fundamental, breakthrough discoveries and highly-sophisticated technical solutions like the collider, when effectively a whole town has to be created underground - they are only possible through combined efforts," Medvedev said at a meeting with the Russian scientists working at CERN.
"There's no need for us here to do things autonomously. When the whole world sets a certain movement trajectory, we need to make our own input, I think it is much more important. That's the premise we will be working on," Medvedev said.
Russia's contribution will be both scientific and financial, he noted.
"Certainly, there will also be support for the second phase of the LHC upgrade and for what is related to increasing the luminosity. We have set aside full funding of the second-phase participation in our budget plan.
"We pre-calculated and budgeted all financial conditions of our participation in the second phase of the LHC upgrade, there will be no problem with this here," Medvedev said.
This will create good conditions for further collaboration by Russian physicists at CERN, he said.
As is known, the first stage of the upgrade involving all nations represented at CERN is nearing completion.