The Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom and Cambodia’s National Council for Sustainable Development of the Kingdom of Cambodia (NCSD) today said they held their first working group meeting towards implementing nuclear power energy cooperation.
This is the first meeting since May 2016 when Rosatom and National Council for Sustainable Development of the Kingdom of Cambodia signed two agreements. The first was the Memorandum on Nuclear Energy Information Center in Cambodia and the second was the Memorandum on the Cambodia-Russia joint working group on the peaceful uses of atomic energy.
Dmitry Tsvetkov, Russian Ambassador Extraordinary to Cambodia, who was present at this working group meeting said: “Russia and Cambodia are now actively developing bilateral economic relations, and nuclear technology is among the most promising areas of cooperation. The atom may become the cornerstone of Cambodia’s sustainable development. On the one hand, it is able to satisfy the energy needs of the growing nation’s economy, while on the other hand, (it) being a clean energy source”.
Cambodian Minister of Environment Say Samal said: “The cooperation between Cambodia and Russia in the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes is part of our effort to promote the overall socio-economic development of the country, to modernise our economy, to move toward a knowledge-based economy by reducing our dependence on natural resources, and promote research, development and innovation.
“We are interested in nuclear technology for its many applications in healthcare, industry, agriculture, and other sectors of the economy, and, in the long run, as a possible option for meeting our increasing energy demand. We are glad that the first steps in this direction, we are making together with such an experienced partner as Rosatom”, he said.
Both parties present at the meeting discussed the possibilities of implementing various nuclear technologies to support the socio-economic development of Cambodia. They agreed that the immediate priority is towards raising public awareness and human resource development in nuclear energy and nuclear technologies.
One of the key areas of the Russia-Cambodia cooperation in nuclear industry, is the dissemination of reliable information about nuclear technologies among the population. To achieve this, the parties are implementing the project to establish Nuclear Energy Information Centre in Cambodia.
Rosatom Southeast Asia Vice President Egor Simonov said the centre is a comprehensive communications platform which will allow people of various age and professions to learn in an interactive form about the basics of atomic energy and technologies.
Rosatom has already opened 17 such centers, including Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Turkey. According to the statistics, more than 80 per cent of people positively change their attitude towards nuclear energy after visiting these centers, he said.
Various Rosatom companies participated in this meeting, including representatives of Rosenergoatom, the group’s nuclear power plants operator, who shared the Russian experience and solutions in national nuclear infrastructure development in countries which are mainly newcomers.
The Cambodian participants included the: National Sustainable Development Council, National Science and Technology Council, Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts, Ministry of Mines and Energy, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, as well as other Cambodian authorities and educational institutions.
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