Ukraine, Canada to establish cooperation in safety assessment of small modular reactors

MOSCOW. Aug 21 (Interfax) - Ukraine and Canada are planning to establish cooperation in the field of pre-licensing safety assessment of small modular reactors (SMRs), Ukrainian media reported citing the website of the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU).

The parties discussed a number of promising areas of cooperation after a memorandum of understanding for cooperation and information exchange on nuclear regulatory issues between SNRIU head Oleg Korikov and President of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) Rumina Velshi was signed in Kiev last week, the SNRIU said.

"Cooperation in the field of licensed assessment of safety of new designs of nuclear units (small modular reactors) has been identified among the priorities, as Canada is one of the leading countries in the world that is currently working on the introduction of new technologies in nuclear engineering, taking into account the need to replace those facilities that have been in operation since the 1970s-1980s and whose service life is expiring," the inspectorate said.

The second important area will be the regulatory activities on decommissioning of uranium mining and processing facilities.