28 Oct (NucNet): Ukraine’s parliament has ratified a new intergovernmental agreement on the transportation of nuclear material between Russia and Hungary through Ukraine.
The new agreement was needed to incorporate the “substantially more stringent nuclear safety requirements” adopted worldwide, including considerations resulting from the Fukushima-Daiichi accident, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said.
The agreement stipulates that the transport of nuclear materials between Russia and Hungary through Ukraine will be carried out by rail and accompanied by armed guards. In the case of an accident, the country on whose territory the event occurred will be responsible for its clean-up.
The new agreement, which replaces an existing accord signed in December 1992, determines the procedure for the import and export of nuclear materials. It also establishes and clarifies the legal basis for the transportation of nuclear materials. This was necessary because of changes to legal regulations on the use of nuclear energy.
Rosatom supplies fuel to the four-unit Paks nuclear plant in Hungary, which was built with the involvement of what was then the USSR, with the first reactor beginning commercial operation in 1983. Spent nuclear fuel from Paks is repatriated to Russia by Rosatom.
Russia and Ukraine have signed similar agreements with Bulgaria (2006) and Slovakia (2010), Rosatom said.
