The Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria was signed on September 3, 2014 in Algeria.
For the Russian side the agreement was signed by CEO of ROSATOM Sergey Kirienko and for the Algerian side it was signed by Minister of Energy of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria Youcef Yousfi.
The agreement defines strategic areas of the cooperation between our countries in the field of the “peaceful atom.” The agreement provides for design, construction, operation and servicing nuclear power plants as well as research reactors in the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria. All technologies, materials and equipment, which can be transferred to the Algerian side under this agreement, will be used exclusively for the peaceful purposes. Besides, Russia and Algeria intend to jointly carry out exploration, surveys and operation of uranium deposits. Also, the agreement states the possibility of the use of nuclear technologies in agriculture, biology, soil science, water resources, industry and medicine, including production of radioisotopes. The sides also agreed on the cooperation in radiation safety in the territory of Algeria.
The Russian side will assist in education of Algerian nuclear specialists and will facilitate the activities of the Algerian Nuclear Engineering Institute. Sergey Kirienko noted that the first ten Algerian specialists would start their post-graduate course in the National Research Nuclear University MEPHI already this year.
“The key project of our cooperation could be construction of a nuclear power plant to a Russian VVER design in Algeria,” CEO of ROSATOM Sergey Kirienko stated after the signing ceremony. “We welcome the intent of the Algerian authorities to develop national power engineering and are ready to offer them a reference project of Generation III+, which meets the strictest safety requirements. This is the nuclear power plants ROSATOM is building both in Russia and abroad,” he said.
Sergey Kirienko noted the Russian nuclear specialists “have accumulated large experience in building NPPs in countries where the climate in hot and seismic activity is high. The Russian plants are capable of withstanding underground quakes of up to 9 points. This is confirmed by successful operation of Bushehr NPP built by ROSATOM’s specialists in Iran.”
Minister of Energy of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria Youcef Yousfi said: “This agreement will facilitate the development of human resources, technologies, and science to build the first Algerian NPP within the coming 12 years.”
For the purposes of the agreement implementation, the sides agreed to set up a Joint Coordinating Committee, which would carry out the active day-to-day work and organize partner meetings by turn in Russia and Algeria.