Rosatom chief hopes to visit Serbia soon, meet with country's leaders
PAKS/MOSCOW. Feb 5 (Interfax) - Alexei Likhachev, head of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, hopes to visit Serbia soon.
"I can't wait to visit Serbia. I hope it'll happen soon. Meetings with both government and state leadership are planned," he said at a press conference following the pouring of the first concrete at the Paks II Nuclear Power Plant in Hungary, answering a question from a Serbian journalist. Rosatom's press service made the audio recording available.
He said the corporation was offering Serbia cooperation across all its competencies. "Work is underway on personnel training and the conceptual design of a research reactor. And we want to reiterate that we are ready to carry out an atomic energy project in any format that Serbia requests," he said.
The company can offer small, medium and large capacity. "We can offer this in alliance with other countries and other partners, both at the construction and operating stages," Likhachev said.
Likhachev said in May last year that Russia had begun the latest stage of collaboration with Serbia regarding potentially building nuclear power plants there.
"[President Aleksandar] Vucic's current visit in fact marks the beginning of a new stage of collaboration with Serbia regarding possibly building nuclear power plants in Serbia," he said.
"I would mention the enormous interest and desire on the part of Serbia to become a nuclear power in terms of nuclear energy," Likhachev said in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV, recalling that the Serbian parliament lifted the ban on developing nuclear energy in the country at the end of last year. "We maintain optimistic expectations on the Balkan track," he said.
Serbia reached the decision in 2019 to construct a nuclear science center. Russia and Serbia previously signed two memorandums of regarding concerning personnel training and public opinion formation, and the respective parties signed an agreement on cooperation in peaceful nuclear energy.
