Environment & Energy | Monday 22 June, 2015 1:57 pm |

Governments of Russian Federation and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of nuclear energy for peaceful uses.

For the first time in the history of Russian-Saudi relations the document creates a legal basis for cooperation between two countries in the field of nuclear energy on a wide range of areas, including construction of nuclear power reactors, provision of cycle of nuclear fuel, including for nuclear power plants and research reactors. Agreement includes the issues of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste, production of radioisotopes and their applications in industry, medicine and agriculture.

The agreement was signed during St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF). The document was signed on behalf of two governments by general director of the state corporation "ROSATOM" Sergey Kiriyenko and president of the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KACARE) Hashim Abdullah Yamani.
Within the agreement there will be established the Coordination Committee and the joint working groups to carry out specific projects and research. It is planned to exchange of experts, scientific and technological information, organization of seminars, symposiums, cooperation in the preparation of scientific and technical personnel. All this became possible for the first time in the history of Russian-Saudi relations.

On June 2014 it became known that Russia and Saudi Arabia have agreed a draft of agreement on cooperation in the nuclear field. Saudi Arabia is interested in cooperation with Russia in the construction of nuclear power plants. "They really began to show their interest. And this is also interesting to us", - said S. Kiriyenko in the beginning of the year.
Saudi Arabia has no yet nuclear power plants, however country has an ambitious plans to develop nuclear energy. Previously, the government of Saudi Arabia stated their intention to introduce 17 GW of nuclear capacity by 2032. So far the construction of any planned nuclear power plant in the country hasn’t began.
The State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom incorporates more than 400 companies and research organizations, including all civil nuclear companies of Russia's nuclear weapons complex, research organizations and the unique in the world nuclear icebreaker fleet.  The international order portfolio of ROSATOM at the end of 2014 was 101.4 billion USD.