Moscow int'l nuclear forum to assess world nuclear situation

MOSCOW, June 6 (Itar-Tass) -- A third Moscow international forum
Atomexport-2011 will open here on Monday. The forum, which will bring
together the chiefs of the nuclear power agencies from almost all
member-countries of the world nuclear club, is entitled "Development of
Nuclear Power: Pause or Continuation." The forum will last three days at
the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall in the Russian capital.
"Several countries, including Russia, are close to a deadline to
decommission most nuclear reactors of the first generation, and the tragic
events at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant speed up this process," the
chief of the Russian state-run nuclear corporation Rosatom Sergei
Kiriyenko said. "The Moscow international nuclear forum should discuss and
set the guidelines for the development of the world nuclear industry and
should determine new technologies that will ensure security of nuclear
power plants," the Rosatom chief said.
The Russian nuclear corporation believes that the debates and the
exchange of opinions at the forum will make the world nuclear community
ready for a July IAEA session, which will be devoted to the condition of
the emergency Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima-1. This IAEA session
"will be devoted to a detailed report, which Japanese nuclear power
engineers are expected to deliver on the ongoing restoration at the
emergency nuclear power plant and the cleanup of the nuclear disaster,"
the Rosatom source said.
The Rosatom director of the department for mass communications Sergei
Novikov told Itar-Tass on the eve of the Moscow forum that it "will be
arranged in the format of plenary meetings and sessions, workshop
discussions, round-table meetings and symposiums." "Director General of
the World Nuclear Association John Ritch and President of the Japan Atomic
Industrial Forum Takuya Hattori" are expected to attend the first plenary
session of the forum. "Rosatom Director General Sergei Kiriyenko, U.S.
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and Chairman of the French Atomic Energy
Commission Bernard Bigot will deliver reports at the forum sessions,"
Novikov noted.
The round-table meetings will discuss such issues as the education in
nuclear power engineering in the countries, which embarked on the path of
nuclear power development, the problems in the development of nuclear
power machine building and cooperation in this sphere, as well as new
uranium production technologies.
"A round table meeting will be devoted to the resistance of modern
nuclear reactors to natural disasters. This round table meeting will
discuss in detail the lessons, which were drawn from the nuclear disaster
at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant," the source said.
On the last day of the forum the Russian Foreign Ministry and Rosatom
are expected to sign an agreement to assign several Rosatom envoys in the
capacity of diplomats in several Russian embassies.
Several members of the Russian government are expected to attend the
forum.