RFNC-VNIIEF All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics

The Russian Federal Nuclear Center is the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC-VNIIEF) - the federal state unitary enterprise of the state corporation Rosatom. The Institute was founded in 1946 for the implementation of the Soviet atomic project. The first domestic atomic and hydrogen bombs were developed here.

FSUE RFNC-VNIIEF is the largest scientific and technical center in Russia, which includes several institutes: theoretical and mathematical physics, experimental gas dynamics and explosion physics, nuclear and radiation physics, laser physical research, a scientific and technical center for physics of high energy densities and directed radiation flows, as well as design bureaus and thematic centers, combined by a common scientific and administrative leadership.

The center employs more than 20 thousand employees.

IT at the Nuclear Center

2021: Participate in the CAD/CAE System Development Consortium

On July 6, 2021, it became known about the signing of the Agreement on the creation consortium the Russian CAD of system developers/CAE, whose activities will be aimed at ensuring the technological independence industrial of enterprises and research organizations RUSSIAN FEDERATION in the field of systems (supercomputer mathematical) modeling and engineering analysis. More. here

2020: Rosatom marks the only supplier of software for supercomputers for government agencies

On August 31, 2020, Rosatom announced its intention to make its "daughter" - the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - the All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC - VNIIEF) - the only supplier of supercomputer modeling systems for departments and state-owned companies for 2020-2024. The state corporation sent a letter with a corresponding proposal to the director of the government's defense industry department Nikolai ArArArAr. More details here.

2018: Development of a PLM system for 5 billion rubles

On July 18, 2018, Rostec and Rosatom announced the creation of a joint venture that will focus on creating a software system for managing the full product lifecycle (PLM). More details here.

2014

How Russian Railways and the Federal Nuclear Center are jointly developing software

In October 2014 , Alexey Illarionov, Vice President for Information Technology and the Development of the Russian Railways Management System, told TAdviser about the main directions of his company's technological cooperation with the Federal Nuclear Center in Sarov (RFNC-VNIIEF). According to him, such cooperation has been ongoing for many years, and its goal is to combine the experience of partners in the field of creating complex and large information systems to give the IT infrastructure of railway transport additional capabilities.

One of the systems developed jointly with Sarov specialists is an automated system for optimizing the processes of train traffic control and maintenance of railway transport infrastructure based on forecasted technologies. The system, in particular, calculates the optimal adequacy of railway infrastructure resources for the timely delivery of goods in an optimally short time and minimizes the influence of the human factor.

"With this system, taking into account the technological and technical limitations in real time, we calculate the optimal resource parameters that ensure the transportation process. On the scale of such a company as Russian Railways, this is very important, since saving even a small percentage of operations, and up to 5-6 million of them per day, means a significant figure in terms of costs, "explains Alexey Illarionov

The source material for the development was, in particular, data on the cost of basic technological processes and unproductive losses. The system takes into account such indicators as: current capacity of various sections of the railway network, processing capacity of stations, provision of locomotive crews, optimal schedule of trains, etc.

This project has a network scale, but so far the system is running around at a pilot training ground - on the Gorky Railway. In the future, it is planned to expand the experimental training ground to the Northern and October Railways, and then to the entire network of railways in Russia. The software of the system is deployed in the central data center, and calculations are carried out taking into account the correspondence that develops throughout the entire railway network.

For this system, the specialists of RFNC-VNIIEF help to create an traditimic basis, layouts, as well as to ensure integration with other systems: for example, with a transactional base, in order to obtain a flow of information about the progress of operational work. Also, for this project, RFNC-VNIIEF developed a special computing complex to support solved problems and on parallel calculations.

"This project would rightly be called innovative and R&D because the resource optimization challenges we are solving are very complex in terms of computational problems and in the world they are being solved in a very limited amount. And given the specifics of the Russian railways, many tasks are even more difficult to solve, "says Alexei Illarionov

Another major block of joint work between Russian Railways and the Sarovsky Nuclear Center may be the development of a stack of software-based products with open source both basic and applied ones, Illarionov says. The first includes a platform operating system DBMS for various tasks (servers applications, web applications, etc.), and an application system, for example, BI a system and software for transactional systems.

The fact that RFNC-VNIIEF is developing its own platform products based on open source software, representatives of the nuclear center told TAdviser in May 2014, and Russian Railways reported on entering this project later in August.

According to the Vice President for IT and the development of the Russian Railways management system, this project is still under discussion, so it is too early to talk about the timing of the implementation of products: a number of organizational and legal issues, including those related to the right to use and modify the source code, have to be resolved.

Alexey Illarionov notes that the use of Open Source is one of the possible measures, the use of which in such a large company as Russian Railways allows you to increase the efficiency of the information landscape in terms of IT costs, as well as to increase the cyber security of the company.

Windows and Oracle DBMS Replacement Software Development

The Federal Nuclear Center in Sarov (RFNC-VNIIEF) is developing its own OS called Synergy, Oleg Krivosheev, deputy director for IT at the nuclear center, said in May 2014 . He told TAdviser that this system uses the Linux kernel, and about 70 employees of the nuclear center are involved in its development. The Synergy OS pilot is already used in "special systems."

In addition to Synergy OS, RFNC-VNIIEF specialists are also developing their own DBMS and hypervisor for virtualization, the deputy director for IT of the Sarov nuclear center told TAdviser. The basis for the first is open source software PostgreSQL (more about the project), and the hypervisor, like the OS, is based on Linux.

The development of this RFNC-VNIIEF software is carried out in order to ensure the import independence of the standard information system of the nuclear weapons complex (TIS NWC) created by the center. Over time, it is planned to replicate it at all enterprises of the industry, and in the future - to develop a typical platform for defense industry enterprises based on this system. The Sarov Nuclear Center acts as a training ground for the use of TIS NWC.

Among the components of the TIS NWC are systems that provide end-to-end 3D design technology, enterprise management, resources and production. Domestic software is already involved in TIS NWC systems to the maximum extent: for example, the technology of end-to-end 3D design is based on the Ascon software, and the ERP system is based on the Alfa System software developed by Informkontakt.

The Synergy OS and its own DBMS will allow you to abandon the Windows OS and the Oracle and SQL DBMS, which are used now, explained TAdviser Oleg Krivosheev. The hypervisor, in turn, should replace the VMware software used in the RFNC-VNIIEF data center, where the TIS NWC systems is located.

According to Oleg Krivosheev, the software of its own development is planned to be certified to work with the state secret and used as platforms for the operation of the main systems included in TIS NWC, and the OS is also for the users who work with these systems. As of May, negotiations are underway with Russian software developers in order to ensure the possibility of working their solutions used in TIS NWC for OS and DBMS, developed by the Sarov nuclear center, he adds.

It is planned to complete the development of its own OS, hypervisor and DBMS, as well as certify this software in 2016, said TAdviser Oleg Krivosheev. He also noted that certification is a long stage, which takes about 9 months.

2013: ERP system commissioning

In February 2013, Rosatom announced the launch of a typical ERP system in the RFNC. Its development was carried out as part of the program for the transformation of information technologies at Rosatom enterprises, which in 2010 included enterprises of the nuclear weapons complex. Learn more about the project.

2011: JOC Standard Information System Program

In 2011-2014, in the pilot zone of RFNC-VNIIEF, a program is being implemented to create a standard information system (TIS of NPS enterprises). Program projects are grouped into areas such as business applications, industrial automation systems - end-to-end cycles, 3D design, IT infrastructure, information security, and IT organization and services. Learn more about the program