It can be three large projects, he said. Russia proposes joint construction of a fast-neutron power reactor.
Russia is the only country in the world to have mastered the commercial use of this kind of nuclear reactors, Kuznetsov said. The fuel cycle of fast-neutron reactors allows efficient use of plutonium, he specified.
Japan has amassed over 30,000 tonnes of spent nuclear fuel, which is the objective condition for cooperation between our countries in building fast-neutron reactors, Kuznetsov said.
Another proposal from the Kurchatov Institute concerns the project of the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER). Alongside Russia, its participants are Japan and France. France will concentrate theoretical and calculations support, Japan will house the reactor proper. According to Kuznetsov, this makes the project costlier. The Kurchatov Institute proposes cutting the total cost and putting to use the capacities of Russia's machine-building Sevmash works in Severodvinsk in the country's north. The ITER power unit, assembled by Sevmash, can then be towed to Japan. "This decision makes the project one billion dollars less costly", Kuznetsov believes.
The third project is the creation of a Russian-Japanese nuclear-safety control centre related to the utilisation of Russian nuclear submarines in Russia's Far Eastern region, Kuznetsov said.
Essentially, the third project consists in arranging a single Russian-Japanese management structure to ensure monitoring of the radiation situation, prevention, containment and elimination of effects of radiation-hazard actions and mathematical modelling of the utilisation process.
"The Japanese Foreign Ministry and organisations of the Japanese nuclear community are in the know about the project and actively support the formation of such a centre", Kuznetsov said.
