Russia, Ukraine and Slovakia sign deal on transit of nuclear materials

[News_Editor]

Russia, Ukraine and Slovakia sign deal on transit of nuclear materials

2010-10-22 10:45:09 GMT+7 (ICT)

MOSCOW, RUSSIA (BNO NEWS) -- Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear corporation, on Thursday announced that it signed a deal with Ukraine and Slovakia for the transit of nuclear materials via Ukraine.

According to the RIA Novosti news agency, the intergovernmental deal was signed in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. The agreement establishes an international legal framework for nuclear fuel transportation that will be performed by the Russian company TVEL.

TVEL will transport the nuclear materials to operating and planned power units of Slovak nuclear power plants. With this agreement, the three nations intend to ensure uninterrupted fuel supplies to Slovakia.

The three-nation agreement considered the current international treaties and the relevant directives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as well as the laws prevailing in each of the three countries.

Last April, Russia and Slovakia signed an agreement for the delivery of nuclear fuel for the third and fourth reactors of the Slovakian nuclear power plant in Mochovce which is still under construction. The long-term deal was worth approximately $400 million.

Slovakia currently owns six light-water reactors that were designed by the former Soviet Union under an intergovernmental agreement with the then Czechoslovakia republic. Russian technology was used to build and operate the Bohunice plant and the upcoming Mochovce facility.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-10-22