International symposium on the 60th anniversary of “First Reactor and First Cyclotron (FRFC) of China” was held in Beijing from 30 to 31 August, 2018. The symposium, hosted by China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE) as one of the series celebration activities of the 60th anniversary of FRFC, aimed to provide international peers with a platform to conduct academic exchanges focusing on reactor and accelerator, and to sketch new possibilities of further cooperation in the future. Among participants were IAEA deputy general director Mikhail Chudakov, vice manager Vitaly V. Petrunin of OKBM of Russia, Daniela Kiselev of PSI and a deputy of China Atomic Energy Authority.

In his keynote speech delivered to the opening session on 30 August, President Wan Gang of CIAE reviewed glorious history of FRFC in the past 60 years and its robust support on growth of China’s nuclear science and technology, and envisioned future development of reactors and accelerators of CIAE in the new era. Mikhail Chudakov applauded in his speech the achievements China had made in reactors and accelerators, and noted that nuclear technologies developed by CIAE since establishment of FRFC not only promoted progress in clean energies in China, but also injected impetus to development of global nuclear energy. In his speech, Petrunin provided a brief introduction of OKBM, and reviewed OKBM-CIAE cooperation on reactor technology from 1958 to 2018. He also read letters of congratulation respectively from Rosatom and OKBM and gifted to CIAE a model of BN-800 reactor body. Participating experts were also invited to view China Experimental Fast Reactor (CEFR), 100MeV Cyclotron and the exhibition for FRFC’s 60th anniversary in CIAE after the opening session.

The technical session dated 31 August involved many famous experts of relevant areas from countries such as Russian, the US, Canada, Switzerland and Japan, and more than 200 delegates from domestic institutions or universities such as CAS, Tsinghua University and Peking University. More than 20 presentations were given in the sub-session REACTOR and sub-session ACCELERATOR which touched upon multiple topics such as high-power accelerator, laser accelerator, fast reactor and high-temperature gas-cooled reactor.

In 1958, CIAE built in its current site the First experimental heavy-water Reactor and First Cyclotron (FRFC) of China with help of experts from the former Soviet Union, ushering in an atomic age of China. The FR and FC has run safely for 50 and 26 years respectively, making historical contributions to isotope production, startup and development of nuclear power, neutron activation analysis and neutron scattering in China. FRFC is also a stellar example of international cooperation and a symbol of China-Russia friendship.