OREANDA-NEWS. May 11, 2007.  The head of Rosatom Sergey Kiriyenko and Energy and Mineral Resources Minister of Kazakhstan Baktykozha Izmukhambetov signed the agreement in the presence of presidents Vladimir Putin and Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The signing of the agreement was the final legal procedure – the establishment of the center has been completed. Earlier we set up a JV in Angarsk, which has been placed under IAEA guarantees, Kiriyenko said. He noted that the center is based on existing capacities and can start working at once.

However, this requires the accession of a third country, probably, Armenia or Ukraine, with whom the sides have a preliminary protocol. “5–7 countries are interested in the center, if 2–3 of them join the project, the mechanism will start working,” Kiriyenko said.