Russia will become the 31st member country of the NEA effective January 1st 2013, according to a release today by the agency. The news comes after an official exchange of letters between OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Andrey Denisov and Deputy Director-General of Rosatom Nikolay Spasskiy formalized the accession.
“With Russia, the NEA will have additional strength when it comes to nuclear energy, nuclear safety, waste management or economics,” Gurría said. “It is all the more important in the post-Fukushima context: international co-operation needs to be enhanced to make sure that all the lessons learned are fully implemented.”
Russia has the fourth largest civilian nuclear program in the world after the United States, France and Japan. Currently, around 18% of the country’s electricity is produced by 33 nuclear reactors. Russia is steadily moving towards an expanded role of nuclear energy, with 11 reactors under construction and plans for nearly doubling output by 2020.
“This is a highly significant event that will bring tremendous change to the Agency,” said NEA Director-General, Luis Echávarri. “The Russian Federation is indeed a major player in the nuclear field, with plant construction and operation, fuel fabrication and research institutes of world renown; it is one of the few countries in the world exporting nuclear reactor technology.”
The 30-member NEA is a specialized agency within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The NEA assists its member countries in maintaining and further developing the scientific, technological and legal bases required for a safe, environmentally friendly and economical use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. It provides authoritative assessments and works to forge common understandings on key issues as input to government decisions on nuclear energy policy and to broader OECD policy analyses in areas such as energy and sustainable development. Russia has been an observer of the NEA since the mid-90's, as well as a contributor to the NEA Data Bank activities since 2010.