Rosatom invites Serbia to join multipurpose fast neutron research reactor project
MOSCOW. Oct 3 (Interfax) - The state Rosatom corporation has invited Serbia to join its multipurpose fast neutron research reactor, or MBIR project.
Rosatom chief Alexei Likhachev said during a session at the Russian Energy Week that he had extended the invitation Serbian Minister of Innovation and Technological Development of Nenad Popovic.
"I think Serbian scientists will make a major contribution to this work," Likhachev said.
Popovic, for his part, said there was a moratorium on nuclear power plant construction in Serbia, but not on research.
"I think that with Rosatom we'll return to this market, this particularly concerns research," Popovic said, adding that he was talking about nuclear medicine and the use of nuclear technologies in the agro-industrial industry.
The MBIR reactor, which is being built in the Ulyanovsk region, will be the most powerful research reactor in the world. The thermal capacity of the new sodium-cooled reactor will be 150 MW. The reactor's unique technical characteristics will make it possible to tackle a broad range of research challenges in substantiating the development of new competitive and safe nuclear energy facilities, including fast neutron reactors for a close nuclear fuel cycle.
The project is being carried out under the federal program Next Generation Nuclear Energy Technology for the period of 2010-2015 and onward to 2020. The reactor is expected to go into operation in 2020.