Russia, Ukraine and Slovakia signed on Thursday in Bratislava an intergovernmental agreement on transit of nuclear materials via Ukraine, the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom reported.
The agreement creates the international legal framework for nuclear fuel transportation by the Russian company TVEL to operating and planned power units of Slovak nuclear power plants. It should ensure uninterrupted fuel supplies to Slovakia, RIA Novosti reported.
The document takes into account international treaties and the relevant directives of the International Atomic Energy Agency, as well as the laws of the three states.
In April, Russia and Slovakia signed a long-term deal worth $400 million on the delivery of nuclear fuel for the third and fourth reactors of the Slovakian nuclear power plant at Mochovce, which are currently under construction.
Slovakia currently has six Soviet-designed light-water reactors. Under an intergovernmental agreement signed between the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, Russian technology was used to build and operate the Bohunice plant, with a capacity of 1.76 GW (four VVER-440 units) and the Mochovce plant with an output of 880 MW (2 VVER-440 units).