Mgr. Yuliia Khmurovska, Ph.D.
Department of Concrete and Masonry Structures, Scientist
The fund resources were used within activity: Support for short-term international cooperation between a young researcher at the Faculty of Civil Engineering CTU in Prague and prestigious foreign experts
How much money from the Initiation Fund did you get and what did you use it for?
I received CZK 17 thousand from the Initiation Fund. The money was used to organize a three-day visit of Dr. Svyatoslav Nikolayevich Sikorin, Head of the Laboratory of Experimental Physics and Nuclear Safety of Reactor Facilities at the Research Institute of the National Academy of Sciences “Sosny” in Minsk.
What does Dr. Sikorin deal with?
He is currently fully engaged in the certification processes preceding the launch of the first Belarus’ VVER-1200/491 Astravec nuclear power plant. In addition, he has long been involved in fundamental and applied research in the field of nuclear physics, such as elementary particle physics, high energy physics, nuclear waste treatment technologies and new nuclear fuel, including its testing.
Why did you strive for his invitation in particular?
I met Dr. Sikorin in 2017 during the cooperation on the international project “V4 – Preparing BY and UA Young Researchers for Entering International R&D in Irradiated Building Materials” funded by the International Visegrad Fund, where Dr. Sikorin presented lectures to the students of the Summer School organized on the CTU campus. Even then, Dr. Sikorin had expressed interest in closer cooperation in the field of research into the effects of ionizing radiation on building materials. Based on the above cooperation and the publication of joint results, an agreement on cooperation between our Faculty and the Sosny Research Institute was signed the following year.
What projects do you cooperate with him on?
At the time of his visit to Prague, two projects had already been submitted in which we were supposed to participate. The contribution from the Initiation Fund allowed me to meet Dr. Sikorin in person and discuss all the details of our future cooperation with him, mainly the issues of the irradiation of concrete specimens. Both projects are now in progress. It is the H2020 project “ACES – Towards Improved Assessment of Safety Performance for LTO of Nuclear Civil Engineering Structures” (total costs of EUR 5.5 million, 2020-2024), where I am a research team member, and the TA CR Zéta project “RadWasteCon – Development of Connecting Details for Concrete Containers of High-Level Waste and Spent Nuclear Fuel Repositories and Modelling of their Long-Term Behaviour” (total cost of CZK 7.9 million, 2020-2022), where I am the senior researcher.
The year 2020 was difficult due to the COVID-19 pandemic, nevertheless, did you manage to organize Dr. Sikorin’s lecture at the Faculty?
On the day of his arrival, the Rector’s Order on COVID-19 was issued banning the holding of lectures on the campus. Therefore, we met informally outside the Faculty several times and discussed the jointly planned project together in person.
Responsible: prof. Dr. Ing. Bořek Patzák
Czech Technical University in Prague
Faculty of Civil Engineering
Czech Technical University in Prague
Faculty of Civil Engineering
Thákurova 7/2077
166 29 Praha 6 – Dejvice
