Putin and Chubais have something to talk about

On April 3, 2009, Vladimir Putin held a working meeting with the Director General of the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies A.B.ChubaisThe meeting discussed the most popular and large-scale projects in the field of nanotechnology, which can be implemented in the near future.

Transcript of the beginning of the meeting (published on the website of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation)

Vladimir Putin: Hello!

A.B.Chubais: I wanted to report on the results so far: what has been done, where we are, what are the problems, how we expect to move forward.

Vladimir Putin: Are we keeping the funding?

A.B. Chubais: Yes. We have no questions about financing, because the position was agreed. What we really planned for ourselves this year without any artificial measures and without strain to spend in a reasonable mode. Practically, this figure is fixed, and we have no questions here.

I have prepared a presentation for you, and we will go through it.

I would start by saying that we have a document called "Strategy". Quite thorough and serious. But for all its seriousness, we believe for ourselves that there is something most important, the most important thing in it that we should see for ourselves as a long-term task for 2015.

This, in our understanding, is the figure of the volume of production of the nanoindustry created in Russia - the annual volume of production of the Russian nanoindustry. This is a thing that can be easily checked and controlled by statistics in the future. In this sense, it is clear, understandable, and, it seems to me, as a goal, this figure taken from the strategy can be regarded as a task.

There is such a figure there - it is 900 billion rubles of the volume of production of the Russian nanotechnology sector in 2015. I compared it with what we have for today. There are not even statistics in nanotechnology yet, but experts say something quite a bit: 5 billion, 8 billion, different estimates. In general, the volume of innovative goods produced in the country today is almost comparable to this figure. 935 billion is what experts estimate we have produced this year. We need to double this figure due to the nanotechnology component. If we focus on this task as our main goal, what has been done so far. The main thing that has been done is, in fact, the mechanism for building selection, building projects that are being launched. We have applications at the start - there are only 917 of them, and then the corporation has built a fairly thorough system of scientific, technical and industrial expertise, business expertise, at the exit of which we report to the supervisory board a fully structured, ready-to-implement project.

There are few approved projects so far, there are only 10 of them today. But this is the result of careful selection and, in fact, the launch of the project formation machine, which, in my understanding, for the most part, to be honest, was formed even before I joined the company.

Vladimir Putin: Out of 917 requests, 10 are left?

A.B. Chubais: Yes, it is. Of course, this is not the final result yet. We will certainly add from the number 917, but about 90%, even more, is a fraction of what does not pass. To be honest, we do not set goals to reduce the quality of requirements, because at the exit there will already be a check by the real market.

Vladimir Putin: Of course.

A.B.Chubais: The cycle itself is quite long. Here's what I just told you - this is the preparation of projects within the corporation, it takes from six months to a year. Then the supervisory board puts a period and says "yes" or "no". Then the investment cycle begins, when we start spending money. As a rule, this is the construction or at least modernization of large workshops and production facilities, which in itself takes from six months to two and a half years. After the plant is built, production begins. In this sense, we have three major stages: the first is the preparation of the project, the second is the construction and the third stage is the release of the nanotechnology product itself.

V.V. Putin: Anatoly Borisovich, what projects do you think can be implemented in the near future and, in your opinion, are the most popular and large-scale?

A.B.Chubais: You know, the prospects here are simply dizzying. From what I would attribute to the most promising things - I probably can't claim a systematic, holistic assessment yet - but there are large, I would say, clusters that we are already seeing and that are already extremely promising in Russia, for Russian demand, and, by the way, for exports too.

The first is solar energy, starting from the production of raw materials - polysilicon and monosilane. We have launched such a plant in the Irkutsk region, in Usolye-Sibirsky. Then these products go to several technologies for the production of solar panels. There are at least three of them, all three are interesting in their own way, starting with flexible films and ending with space technologies. For all three reasons, we consider it right to have a working production in Russia, a working business that is currently in the launch stage.

This is one type of silicon use today, and I am absolutely convinced that it has both domestic and export prospects. This sector is growing in the energy sector of the world by tens of percent. The same raw materials are very much in demand by another nanotechnology industry - the production of LEDs. This is a lighting system that, according to all estimates, is at least 5 or even 7 times less energy-intensive in terms of electricity consumption.

The whole world understands that in the next 5-10 years, almost all lighting systems, from street, housing and communal, to special systems - for example, surgical lighting systems, car headlights - will definitely be replaced by LEDs.

One of our first projects is the Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant, Yekaterinburg, the construction of a plant for the production of LEDs. This is the part of the nanotechnology complex that, I am convinced, is in demand, and which needs to be deployed as dynamically as possible.

Another major branch, or cluster, will definitely be in demand with us - these are nanocomposite materials. We already clearly see that in a number of industries the picture is almost black and white: either in the next 3-5 years we will learn how to produce and supply nanocomposite materials of different types and configurations to these industries, or we will simply lose the industry. Aircraft industry - it is obvious that the whole world is switching to nanocomposites, which have 3-5 times lower weight and higher strength parameters. Strategically, it is simply unacceptable to miss it.

We have a project supported by the United Aviation Corporation (M.A.Poghosyan), according to which we are actually going to produce prepregs (semi-finished products for the production of polymer composite products). They can be used to make wings, fuselage parts and some other aircraft parts.

But aviation is not the only industry where nanocomposite materials are in demand. In the broadest sense of the word - this is space, shipbuilding, automotive. That is, by seriality - you understand that the seriality there is one in ten or one in a hundred. These are the industries that, without a doubt, need nanocomposites. I do not know a single serious expert who would argue with this - obvious things.

But this does not exhaust the list. Medicine - the possibilities here are simply enormous. What we have done so far is the very first steps and, one might say, timid, although very interesting. Here is a group of specialists based on technologies that were developed in Dubna at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, now with our support has launched the construction of a complex, which, in fact, is a classic cyclotron. Charged particles that accelerate in it, punch holes in the membrane, thus creating a filter. But due to the fact that the holes are nanoscale, from 20 to 100 nanometers, an ultra-high quality filter is obtained, which they already use according to the technology they have mastered in the device they manufacture for plasmapheresis - blood purification. Again, due to the technology itself and the dimension of the holes, the quality of blood purification is not found anywhere else in the world. There is no such technology in Europe, there is no such technology in the USA, there is no such technology in Japan. There are other technologies out there - less efficient than this one.

In our understanding, this device alone is colossal in terms of the potential market, in terms of the potential scope of both Russian and foreign applications.

V.V. Putin: The possibilities of technology, of course, are great. I just wanted to hear what has been done in practical terms and what in practical terms is being implemented in the near future. I realized that there is already movement.

A.B. Chubais: What I said are projects that have already been partially approved, which are not currently under discussion, not under discussion. And in the stage...

Vladimir Putin: Implementations.

A.B.Chubais: We have already launched the construction cycle of the plant in Dubna. And at the plant in Yekaterinburg, I was there - there is a ready-made workshop. This is not even a workshop, but a colossal room, in fact, several workshops. The next stage is the delivery of equipment and debugging of the technological process.

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru07.04.2009