On 16 June 2013, the term of cooperation under the 17 June 1992 Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the United States Concerning the Safe and Secure Transport, Storage and Destruction of Weapons and the Prevention of Weapons Proliferation, hereinafter referred to as the 1992 Agreement, expired. Russian President Vladimir Putin decided not to extend the term of the 1992 Agreement but to assess mutually acceptable and equitable options for Russian-US cooperation with regards to nuclear capability.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in cooperation with the concerned federal executive agencies and organisations, has held consultations with the US for the purpose of drafting possible options for subsequent cooperation. After the talks, the concerned parties signed a protocol stipulating the conversion of nuclear cooperation from the primarily military-political format to the nuclear-environmental format.
The protocol calls for extending the provisions of the Framework Agreement on the Multilateral Nuclear Environmental Programme of the Russian Federation, hereinafter referred to as MNEPR, to the following areas of Russian-US nuclear cooperation:
· Registration, control and physical protection of nuclear materials;
· Regulation of safety and security issues during the registration, control and physical protection of nuclear materials;
· Customs control of nuclear and other radioactive materials;
· Location, extraction, storage, scrapping and recycling of extremely hazardous radiation sources and ensuring the safety and security thereof;
· Reducing the number of nuclear material storage sites, including irradiated and non-irradiated highly enriched Uranium 235 isotopes with 20% enrichment or more, and converting excess highly enriched uranium (HEU) into low enriched uranium (LEU);
· Conversion of the Russian Federation’s research reactors using highly enriched uranium fuel into reactors using low-enriched uranium and developing new production processes to make low-enriched uranium fuel for the future conversion of research reactors using highly-enriched uranium fuel into reactors using low-enriched uranium fuel;
· Dismantling and transporting nuclear submarines, extraction of their fuel, ensuring the safe storage of nuclear submarines, including transport and safe storage of reactor compartments and related materials, for the purpose of ensuring the safety and security of spent highly-enriched nuclear fuel;
· Other areas of cooperation, if the sides agree in writing.
The protocol has been drafted in accordance with Clause 1 of Article 1 and Clause 3 of Article 7 of the Framework Agreement on the MNEPR, under which this multilateral treaty can be extended to additional areas of nuclear cooperation.
Therefore, the protocol is subject to ratification in accordance with Sub-Clause A of Clause 1 of Article 15 of the Federal Law On the International Treaties of the Russian Federation.
The draft law will be reviewed at a Government meeting.
