Nuclotron - superconducting nuclei accelerator at LHE, JINR (design, operation and development)

This is a report made at the scientific seminar dedicated to the 50th anniversary of LHE, JINR. A historical overview of work performed from 1977 to 1993 on design and construction at the laboratory of the Nuclotron superconducting accelerator is presented. The new technical solutions and inventions made in the course of its construction, the main parameters of the accelerator subsystems proposed during the design and achieved in 25 runs of its operation are described. These runs were devoted to the accelerator tune-up and to the physics experiments with different beams of relativistic nuclei obtained in 1993-2003. Plans on improvement of the parameters of the accelerator, design of a booster and superconducting channels for beam transporting to physical setups, realization of multiturn injection of polarized deuterons for increasing intensity in experiments on spin physics are being reviewed