Laboratory—is proceeding. In an email to
collaborators, AMoRE’s spokespeople de-
scribed its leaders’ “determination to carry
out our program during this difficult period.”
But the collateral damage to Russia’s sci-
entific enterprise is mounting. In addition
to the effects on ExoMars and Skoltech, the
United States imposed fresh sanctions on
technology transfers to Russia, which the
Russian space agency claimed could threaten
operation of the International Space Station.
After Germany’s research ministry ordered
a suspension of collaboration with Russia,
the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial
Physics turned off the main instrument on
Russia’s Spektr-RG research satellite: the
German-run eRosita x-ray survey telescope,
meant to probe the universe’s large-scale
structure. And math societies in several
countries announced last week they will not
participate in the International Congress of
Mathematicians, which was slated for St.
Petersburg, Russia, in July but now plans to
go virtual.
Within Russia itself, some scientists
sought to show solidarity with Ukraine.
More than 5400 Russian scientists and sci-
ence journalists signed a letter calling the
war “a step to nowhere” that will turn Rus-
sia into a pariah.
The invasion, the 24 February letter says,
“means that we scientists will no longer be
able to do our job normally: after all, con-
ducting scientific research is unthinkable
without cooperation with colleagues from
other countries.” Posted to the independent
science news site TrV-Nauka, the letter is in
part an appeal to the international commu-
nity “that any actions to punish Russia are
weighted in such a way as to not punish the
very people who object to what Russia is do-
ing,” says Mikhail Gelfand, a bioinformatics
specialist who helps edit TrV-Nauka. (He
notes that he is not speaking on behalf of
his employer, Skoltech.) And climatologist
Oleg Anisimov, head of Russia’s delegation
to the United Nations’s Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, apologized for
the invasion during a 27 February meeting,
according to news reports.
Russian scientists may face peril for
speaking out on Ukraine’s behalf. The office
of Russia’s prosecutor general has declared
that anyone caught providing assistance to
a nation or organization acting against the
Russian Federation could be charged with
treason. Authorities have arrested hundreds
of street protesters, including Skoltech pro-
fessor Georgii Bazykin, a prominent evo-
lutionary geneticist who was detained on
27 February after holding up a handwritten
sign in downtown Moscow saying, “Stop the
War Today.” He was released pending trial.
Bazykin later tweeted that his plight is a
“minor inconvenience compared to what
people of Ukraine face now, or what the
world including Russia will face if [Presi-
dent Vladimir] Putin has his way.”
In Europe, a number of institutions
have offered refuge to Ukrainian scientists,
some of whom have joined an exodus of
more than 500,000 people from the be-
sieged country. The Polish Young Academy,
part of the Polish Academy of Sciences
(PAN), has lined up scores of institutes and
universities willing to host refugee scien-
tists. “We want to find them jobs in their
expertise,” says Jacek Kolanowski of PAN’s
Institute of Bioorganic chemistry. So far,
they’ve secured positions for a psychologist
in Warsaw, a cancer researcher in Lublin,
and a law professor in Poznan ́. In Germany,
the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s
Philipp Schwartz-Initiative, which helps
find succor for scholars at risk, has invited
Ukrainian scientists to apply for funding
with German partners. “Our lab in Berlin
will support researchers who had to flee
Ukraine,” tweeted Matthias Rillig, an eco-
logist at the Free University of Berlin.
Many Ukrainian scientists have vowed
to stay and defend their homeland. “Vir-
tually the entire population has taken
up arms,” says Oleg Krishtal, a neuro-
physiologist with the Bogomoletz Institute
of Physiology, who is sticking it out in Kyiv.
Mosyakin says that although he is a mix-
ture of at least four nationalities, “I am a
Ukrainian, period.” And most Ukrainians
he knows “are not afraid to die for their
native land.” jSCIENCE science.org 4 MARCH 2022 • VOL 375 ISSUE 6584 943NEWSF
rance’s nuclear regulator has ordered
ITER, an international fusion en-
ergy project, to hold off assembling
its doughnut-shaped reactor, called
a tokamak. On 25 January, France’s
Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) sent a
letter halting work until ITER can respond
to safety concerns. ITER staff say they in-
tend to satisfy ASN so they can begin weld-
ing by July—and still open in 2025.
Fusing hydrogen isotopes under extreme
temperatures generates energy. But no fu-
sion reactor has produced more heat than
it consumes. The $25 billion ITER project is
designed to demonstrate net energy output,
but not until 2035.
One ASN concern is over the 1.5-meter-
thick slab of concrete on which the reactor
sits. ASN wants reassurance that the loads
on the slab are within safety limits.
A second concern is protecting staff and
the public from radiation. Thick concrete
walls in the reactor building should stop
high-energy neutrons produced during op-
eration. But existing “radiological maps do
not make it possible to demonstrate control
of limiting exposure,” ASN writes. ITER
Director-General Bernard Bigot says most
nuclear facilities only produce a 2D model
of potential exposures. ASN wants more evi-
dence that ITER’s 3D model is as robust as
the simpler one.
A third concern is over slight deformities
discovered in two of the nine 11-meter-tall
sections that will make up the tokamak.
ITER staff developed a fix that would in-
volve robotic and human welders, but ASN
is not convinced. Bigot hopes ASN will be
satisfied by tests of the welding system on a
full-scale mockup.
Bigot says he understands ASN’s desire to
be careful with a machine that will be the
first of its kind. “They want to understand
very precisely the safety risks,” Bigot says.
“So it’s not surprising they’re taking a little
more time.” jRegulator halts
assembly of
fusion reactor
ITER must meet safety
concerns before welding
giant tokamak sections
FUSIONBy Daniel ClerySmoke and
flames rose over
Kyiv, Ukraine,
during last week’s
Russian invasion.