The bill on the corporation, which will be formed on the basis of the Russian Federal Nuclear Power Agency (Rosatom) and will have the same name, was introduced to the State Duma last Thursday by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In line with the bill, Rosatom corporation will be fully controlled by the federal government and will incorporate Atomenergoprom joint stock company, all civilian and military nuclear facilities and enterprises, research institutions, and organizations working in the sphere of nuclear and radioactive security.
Addressing the State Duma on Thursday, Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Rosatom agency, said that forming the new state corporation would help, among other things, to prevent the risk of nuclear waste being brought into Russia from other countries.
"We do not bring radioactive waste into Russia, which is absolutely right. I categorically object to imports of radioactive waste," Kiriyenko said. "Setting up the corporation will help to set strict controls over the entire nuclear industry, to prevent such risks in the future."
The head of the agency, who was also appointed last week by Putin as presidential representative in the parliament on the Rosatom corporation bill discussions, said that Russia currently stores and processes spent nuclear fuel produced within the country.
"These are our obligations within the non-proliferation regime. If we have produced fissile material, than we have to get rid of it," he said.
Kiriyenko said that the state corporation should be formed in the first quarter of 2008 as the bill on the corporation has a good chance of passing all parliamentary readings by December.
"If the bill passes all three readings in November than it can be signed by the Russian president in December," he said.
