Russia and China outline expanded cooperation

Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister of Russia, and Li Keqiang, premier of China's State Council, today made a joint statement on the development of strategic cooperation between the two countries in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said the statement "is intended to facilitate implementation" of its major projects in China.

"In particular, the heads of government support collaborative construction of two new reactors of Russian design at the Tianwan nuclear power plant site and aim to prepare quickly the signing of an intergovernmental protocol on the project and will contribute to the conclusion of the relevant contracts," Rosatom said.

"In addition, construction of the reactors at new sites in China is planned, while cooperation in floating nuclear power plants and fast breeder reactors, which are Generation IV technology, will be developed," it added.

Russian-Chinese cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy is based on "many years of experience of effective interaction", Rosatom said. In 2007, the first two units of Tianwan nuclear power plant were was put into operation, which according to the International Atomic Energy Agency is one of the safest nuclear power plants in the world, it said. The two countries are currently working on the second phase of the Tianwan site and the new units are to be brought on line in 2018, it said.

In 2011, an experimental fast reactor with sodium coolant was launched with the participation of Russian specialists, Rosatom noted. In the same year and ahead of schedule, the fourth and last in a series of gas centrifuge plants - built in the framework of a Russian-Chinese agreement of 1992 – was put into operation.

At the end of July 2014, Rosatom subsidiary Rusatom Overseas and China's CNNC New Energy signed a memorandum on the construction of a floating nuclear power plant, which China plans to use for the island territories and deposits for the production of hydrocarbons, the Russian corporation said. In addition, the two countries are cooperating in the production of isotopes in China.

Li, who arrived in St Petersburg on 6 November for a four-day official visit, met Medvedev yesterday and Russian President Vladimir Putin today.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News