MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Implementing Agreement between Russia's Rosatom State Corporation and the US Department of Energy Regarding Cooperation in Conducting Feasibility Studies of the Conversion of Russian Research Reactors was signed on December 7, 2010 at the second meeting of the working group on nuclear energy and security of the bilateral Russian-US presidential commission.
The commission co-chairs were Rosatom General Director Sergey Kiriyenko and US Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman.
The agreement provided a legal framework for the conduct of feasibility studies of the conversion of six Russian research reactors located in Moscow (including the MEPhI and the Kurchatov Institute, among others) and in the Ulyanovsk region (NIIAR).
On October 4, 2016, under Paragraph 6 Article 37 of Federal Law 101-FZ On International Treaties of the Russian Federation (June 15, 1995), the Government adopted the decision to suspend the Agreement.
The Cabinet of Ministers’ reference to the directive suspending the Agreement notes that the US actions involving the introduction of sanctions against Russia directly affected areas of cooperation under the Agreement. In particular, the United States imposed restrictions on high-tech cooperation with Russia. In April 2014, the Rosatom State Corporation received a letter from the US Department of Energy Bureau at the US Embassy in Moscow citing directives from Washington and announcing the suspension of nuclear energy cooperation in connection with the events in Ukraine.
"Under these circumstances, further cooperation with the US, which envisions access for US citizens to Russian nuclear facilities and direct collaboration between Russian and US institutes, as well as exchanges of information and documentation between them, is inexpedient," the Cabinet said.
