NOVOSIBIRSK, August 11. /TASS/. The first of three applications from Chinese organizations wishing to become participants in the international center for synchrotron, neutron and laser research based on the PIK reactor has been considered and approved, said Mikhail Kovalchuk, President of the Kurchatov Institute Research and Development Center, at a meeting of the Council for Science and Education, chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Today we have already received three requests in a row from various Chinese organizations to join this association. One of them was accepted: it is the Academy of Sciences [of China]," Kovalchuk said.

The PIK high-flux research reactor, developed in Gatchina by the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute named after B. P. Konstantinov, is designed to study neutrons, neutron radiation, investigate microscopic structures, and advance many other fundamental and applied scientific fields. An international center for synchrotron, neutron and laser research has also been established at the reactor. Belarus, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Iran are already among its participants.