The FTC was signed by Sergey Kazakov, director of the Russian Federal Centre for Nuclear and Radiation Safety and Radojica Pesic, general director of the Serbian Public Company Nuclear Facilities.
Signing an FTC signifies that all funding for the project has been identified. With a price tag of $25 million, the Vinca project is the largest FTC to date in the Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return Programme. Full funding has been pledged for the project from Serbia and international donors, including the Czech Republic, Russia, USA, IAEA, and the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI). A breakdown of the contributions are as follows: Serbia, $11 million; US, $7 million; Russian Federation, $3 million; Czech Republic, $1 million; NT!, $0.1 million; and IAEA; $2.9 million.
These contributions are in addition to the contribution of $11.1 million from the European Community and $4.9 million from NTI, which are being directed towards repackaging severely degraded spent nuclear fuel canisters, preparations for shipment, and transport to Russia.
In his comments prior to the signing the FTC, Serbian Deputy Minister Bozidar Djelic welcomed the project´s benefits, neutralizing Vinca´s vulnerability to nuclear terrorism, while also addressing serious environmental concerns.
In turn, US National Nuclear Security Administrator Thomas D´Agostino noted that the signing was important for setting this essential work in motion and as evidence of the concrete benefits for countries that cooperate in strengthening their non-proliferation efforts.
