Nanotowars with four letters
The Government of the Russian Federation has defined the criteria for nanotowards and nanoservices. This was done to create a system of state statistical monitoring of the production and sale of nanoindustry products, according to a government decree signed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
In Russia, the state-owned Rusnano company is engaged in the development of the nanoindustry, which invests in selected projects with the potential for commercialization, as a rule, as a minority partner. The target task of Rusnano is to bring the nanoindustry industry in the country to at least 900 billion rubles in 2015, which is comparable to the total revenue of the largest raw materials companies. This volume will allow Russia to increase its share in the global nanoindustry market from 0.07% to 3%, the head of the company Anatoly Chubais said earlier.
In 2010, there were reports that Rosstat had developed a calculation method according to which domestically produced cars equipped with LED lamps or tires with nano-additives would be considered nanoproducts. According to skeptics, only such a calculation method would help to achieve the stated indicators by 2015. A. Chubais himself then called such proposals a "belated April Fool's joke."
According to the decree signed on July 7, nanoindustry goods and services are divided into four categories: "A", "B", "C" and "D". The criteria for assigning nanotubes to category "A" are the strictest. "Nanoindustry products of category "A" (primary nanotechnology products) are goods that are nanocomponents (nanoobjects and nanosystems), including those used as raw materials and semi–finished products for the production of nanoindustry products of categories "B", "C" and "D"," the government decree says.
A product belongs to category "A" if it meets one of the following criteria: it contains components that determine its functional properties and characteristics and whose size in at least one dimension is in the range from 1 to 100 nanometers (for nanobiotechnology products, the upper limit is determined by the size of proteins, DNA, biological molecules and other organic compounds); products are produced by manipulating individual atoms, molecules.
Products of category "B" are products containing nanocomponents (products of category "A"). Goods can be considered nanotoods of category "B" if nanocomponents give them "new, fundamentally important functional properties and provide a significant improvement in characteristics."
The most vague formulation is given to the products of the nanoindustry category "B". These are goods or services that do not contain nanocomponents, but in the production (provision) of which nanotechnology or nanocomponents are used (products of category "A"). Products belong to category "B" only if the use of nanotechnology in the production of goods and the provision of such services provides a significant improvement in performance.
The "G" category includes equipment necessary for the production of nanoproducts. Such products must meet one of two criteria: to ensure the quality of measurement or control of the characteristics of nanocomponents, unattainable by other methods, or "the possibility of controlled manipulation of individual atoms and molecules, including in the production of nanoindustry products of categories "A", "B" and "C".
Elena Sanarova, Director of the Public Relations Department of Rusnano, noted that the government decree "defines the general ideology of attributing goods and services to nanotechnology products." According to her, the criteria for determining nanoproducts should be further developed in "local regulations of departments and interested market participants."
Thus, Rusnano has adopted its own regulatory act, which defines much stricter conditions for classifying products and services as nanotechnological, E.Sanarova told Interfax. In the "B" category, Rusnano has only services, not goods, she noted. The state-owned company refers to this category only those services whose characteristics directly depend on the use of nanotechnology. In particular, we are talking about medical services, such as blood purification using nanomembrane filters, the representative of Rusnano noted.
At the end of December, the head of Rosstat, Alexander Surinov, stated that his department would establish a system of accounting for the nanoindustry in 2011. He reported that in January-September 2010, a pilot study was already conducted on 115 companies in this area. The results of the study showed that in the total volume of shipped products, products related to nanotechnology accounted for only 0.3%, and, for example, in the production of machinery and equipment, even less – 0.1%, in the production of vehicles and equipment – 0.001%.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru14.07.2011