Russia, France to sign nuclear cooperation agreement shortly

MOSCOW, February 2. Russia and France are to sign an agreement on cooperation in the nuclear sphere shortly, Sergei Antipov, deputy head of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency, announced at a news conference Thursday.

"Within the next two or three weeks we will sign an agreement with France and with Norway within the Global Partnership agreement," he said.

The Global Partnership was endorsed and adopted by the G8 leaders at the Kananaskis summit in Canada. It envisages utilization and destruction of nuclear waste in Russia.

The issue of nuclear energy will be discussed at the summit as part of the energy problem, which Russia as the G8 current president has put at the top of the agenda,  Antipov said.

At present "we are willing to share experience in the sphere, including in nuclear waste utilization," he said, adding, "Perhaps, time will come when we will be able to help with nuclear submarines utilization."