Rosatom, JAEA discuss potential cooperation on new nuclear projects
MOSCOW. Nov 27 (Interfax) - Russian state corporation Rosatom and Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) are discussing possible cooperation in new projects, a source with knowledge of the protocol of a Russian-Japanese intergovernmental commission meeting told Interfax.
Rosatom and JAEA are pleased with the signing in September of the memorandum on exchange of information on reactor physics experiments for minor actinoid transmutation for radioactive waste processing. "The sides welcome the development of cooperation on the basis of the memorandums that have been signed and also the search for new joint projects," the document says.
The information exchange memorandum was signed at the Eastern Economic Forum 2017 in September.
Russia is ready to help Japan in liquidating the consequences of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and withdrawing the plant from service. "Our proposal to our Japanese colleagues is that we are ready to take part in liquidating the effects of the Fukushima incident, are ready to help in withdrawing the nuclear plant from operation," Rosatom First Deputy Director General Kirill Komarov said at the Eastern Economic Forum.
Plans are to settle on the specific projects for liquidating the effects of the Fukushima accident before the end of 2017.
It was reported earlier that a Rosatom company, the RosRAO federal state unitary enterprise, in a consortium with JSC Tekhsnabexport, will create a neutron detector to search for fuel fragments at Fukushima.
The companies were selected by Japan's Mitsubishi research institute to conduct a feasibility study in the framework of the first stage of the subsidized program for withdrawing from operation and disposing of contaminated water. The goal of the project is to develop a method for more exactly seeking and identifying fuel fragments from Fukushima.
The Fukushima disaster occurred in March 2011, when the nuclear power plant, located on Japan's northeastern coast, was hit by an earthquake and then the tsunami the earthquake caused.