Russian fuel company TVEL and Ukrainian state concern Nuclear Fuel on Wednesday signed an agreement in Kiev on the construction of a nuclear fuel plant in Ukraine.
The agreement was signed during a committee meeting on economic cooperation of the Russian-Ukrainian intergovernmental commission.
"This is very important for us because it is a great step to the closed nuclear fuel cycle in our country," Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Minister Yuri Boyko said. "We have 15 nuclear reactors, and we should have our own nuclear fuel."
Ukraine's cabinet on September 22 approved TVEL as the winner of the tender to build a nuclear fuel plant in the country. The plant is to come online in 2014.
Earlier the head of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, said the prospects of integrating the Russian and Ukrainian nuclear power industries are real.
Moscow and Kiev intend to establish a Russia-based joint venture on uranium enrichment, similar to the one established by Russia and Kazakhstan in Angarsk in East Siberia, Kiriyenko said.
A delegation of Russian ministers led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin paid a visit to Ukraine on Wednesday to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues that included energy cooperation with Ukrainian top officials.
KIEV, October 27 (RIA Novosti)
