Russia and Serbia will build a nuclear science, technologies and innovations centre in Vinca where a research reactor, but not a nuclear plant, will be built. The daily adds that the reactor will cost around EUR 300 million.
The so-called zero-power research reactor will produce radioactive isotopes for medicine and research.
The construction of a nuclear plant will nevertheless have to be considered at some point due to the decreasing supplies of fossil fuels, a Serbian nuclear physician told the Vecernje Novosti daily. As he said, the most logical location would be to build it somewhere along the Danube.
However, this would require a change in the regulations, because, according to the current ones, nuclear facilities may not be built in Serbia. The moratorium on the construction, adopted in 1989 as a consequence of the Chernobyl disaster, expired after 25 years when the Law on the Ban on Construction of Nuclear Power Plants was adopted.
If Serbia builds such a facility, it will have Russia’s support. A senior Russian government official, Sergei Prihotko, said Russia was ready to partner with Serbia in the construction of a nuclear power plant if it decides to launch a nuclear energy programme.
Otherwise, the agreement to build a science centre in Vinca was signed by Minister of Innovation Nenad Popovic and CEO of Russia’s state corporation Rosatom Alexei Lihachov.
The centre, according to Rosatom, will have a multi-purpose research reactor filled with pressurized water, with all associated systems, equipment and laboratories.
“The Center for Nuclear Sciences, Technology and Innovation, which we will jointly build in Serbia, is an innovative project based on the most advanced nuclear technologies. The project is the result of our long-term cooperation in this area and the traditionally good ties between Russian and Serbian nuclear scientists,” said Lihachov, adding that both sides are resolved to put this project into practice as soon as possible.
(Vecernje Novosti, 23.10.2019)
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