Russia and the Czech Republic will sign an agreement on setting up a joint venture to exchange advanced technologies in civilian nuclear power sector during the visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Prague on December 7-8.
During his official visit Medvedev will meet with Czech President Vaclav Klaus and Prime Minister Petr Necas to discuss bilateral trade and cooperation in energy, transportation and technology sectors, the Kremlin press service said on Tuesday.
As part of the agenda, Russia’s nuclear fuel producer TVEL, which supplies the Temelín nuclear plant in South Bohemia, and the Czech firm ALTA Invest will sign an agreement on the establishment of the Technical Services Center “to enable the exchange of technologies for civil nuclear applications, including power generation.”
One of the main topics at the talks in Prague will be the bid by the Rosatom-led Russian-Czech consortium to build two new reactor blocks at Temelín NPP. The draft proposal by the consortium meets the highest safety requirements and includes solutions based on lessons of the Fukushima tragedy.
Russian-Czech trade totaled $6.6 billion in January-September 2011, marking an 11.4 percent growth year-on-year. Russia remains key energy supplier to the Czech Republic, meeting 80 percent of the country’s demand in natural gas and 70 percent – in oil.