Russia, Kazakhstan May Sign Nuclear Cooperation Deal in 2016

Russia and Kazakhstan may sign an agreement on scientific cooperation in the field of peaceful nuclear energy this year, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom’s company Science and Innovation said in a statement Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On February 25-26, Rosatom’s deputy director general, Vyacheslav Pershukov, traveled to Kazakhstan where he discussed joint projects with the Kazakh Energy Ministry.

"We discussed the issues of coordinating an agreement between the governments of Kazakhstan and Russia on cooperation in research and development in the nuclear energy sector, noted real progress in mutual understanding on all positions in the implementation of programs, and we hope that we will sign the agreement in the current year," Pershukov said, as quoted in the statement.

According to the company official, the agreement will also foresee Kazakhstan’s participation in work at Russia’s multi-purpose fast research reactor (MBIR), currently under construction.

MBIR is expected to start operations by 2020. The MBIR is expected to be the most powerful among all existing and planned research reactors in the world. The heat capacity of the new reactor, which will primarily use sodium as a coolant, will be about 150 megawatts.