The Governments of the United States of America and the Russian Federation:

NOTING that nuclear power facilities in the United States and in the Russian Federation will continue to provide an important source of electrical energy for the foreseeable future;

RECOGNIZING that some of the nuclear power reactors currently in operation were built a number of years ago to safety and design standards that were in effect at that time but that have evolved;

RECOGNIZING that the highest levels of nuclear safety and environmental protection must be achieved in the use of nuclear power to meet energy needs;

REALIZING that the safe use of nuclear energy depends upon 1) the establishment of a vigorous safety culture among users of nuclear energy, based on a legal foundation which defines the activities of a strong and independent regulatory authority; 2) legal recognition of the need for adherence to agreed nuclear safety principles; and 3) an internationally recognized system of legal liability and financial protection for providing adequate compensation for damage from nuclear accidents and appropriate limitations on third party liability;

RECOGNIZING further that international cooperation in nuclear safety, on both the bilateral and multilateral level, is important to achieving the highest levels of safety, and offers significant opportunities to enhance the benefits of nuclear energy through freer trade, investment and technology transfer and non­discriminatory access to resources, technology and markets, with appropriate protection for investments and intellectual property;

CALLING attention to the fact that the United States and the Russian Federation (and its predecessor the Soviet Union) have been cooperating on a broad range of activities to promote nuclear and radiation safety since 1988 under the Joint Coordinating Committee for Civilian Nuclear Reactor Safety;

NOTING FURTHER that the United States and the Russian Federation have entered into an Agreement concerning operational safety enhancements, risk reduction measures, and nuclear safety regulation for civil nuclear facilities in the Russian Federation;

NOTING ALSO that the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Gosatomnadzor of the Russian Federation have just signed an­extension of their broad­based assistance program to enhance nuclear safety regulation in Russia;

Therefore, express their commitment:

To continue their expanded bilateral cooperation in improving the safety of nuclear reactor operations to reduce the risk of accidents;

To enhance the safety of their nuclear reactors to the extent possible;

To have their authoritative national regulatory organizations review the safety of nuclear reactors operating in their respective countries, especially those built to earlier standards;

To conduct joint research in the field of radiological contamination under an Agreement on the Health Effects of Radiation;

To expand alternatives to electric power qeneration in order to meet existing and projected demand safely and economically, including undertaking a joint study of alternative electrical energy measures that takes nuclear power into consideration;

To support the nuclear safety activities of the International Atomic Energy Agency; and

To work toward prompt negotiation of an International Nuclear Safety Convention which would establish binding safety principles and a peer review process for its implementation.

DONE this sixteenth day of December, 1993, in Moscow, in the English and Russian languages.

FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF

THE UNITED STATES FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF

AMERICA:

Signed by Al Gore

FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF

THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION:

Signed by Viktor Chernomyrdin

 
Source: URL: http://www.eia.doe.gov/gorec/gcc2.html

Comments or questions? Contact Cristina Chuen at MIIS CNS: Cristina.ChuenATmiis.edu

This material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2010 by MIIS.

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