Moscow, 9 December 2021: The government of the Republic of Serbia and ROSATOM have signed a General Framework Agreement to construct a Centre for Nuclear Science and Technology (CNST) and an agreement to form a joint venture that will implement the project in Serbia.
The agreements were made the day before the Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabich’s visit to Moscow. On behalf of the Republic of Serbia, the document was signed by Nenad Popović, Minister of Innovation and Technology Development of Serbia, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Committee for Cooperation with Russia; on the Russian side, by Evgeny Pakermanov, President of Rusatom Overseas.
Under the agreements, a Nuclear Medicine Centre with a cyclotron complex and radiopharmaceuticals production facilities will be built in Serbia within the next three years.
“We are very happy that, together with our Serbian partners, we have identified the specific steps and a preliminary timeline for implementing this project, which employs Russian innovative nuclear technologies. The radiopharmaceutical complex and the nuclear medicine centre will provide Serbian citizens with high-tech medical solutions to treat, above all, oncology conditions”, stated Alexey Likhachev, ROSATOM’s Director General.
“It is a historic day in the relations between Serbia and Russia. Following the agreement between our leaders, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Russian President Vladimir Putin, we have signed the agreements that bring Serbia back on the map of European countries that have a base for scientific research in nuclear technology. This will help Serbia to address the challenges in healthcare, science and research; we are already receiving requests from our neighbouring countries that would like to use the capacities of the centre and our scientists. The signing of these agreements opens up new prospects for the development of relations between Serbia and Russia in the area of nuclear technology,” said Nenad Popović.
The future centre will greatly contribute to the development of Serbia by using cutting-edge technologies: radioisotope production for medical and industrial purposes, doped silicon production for various industries, and material composition tests of ores, minerals, and environmental samples.
“As part of our joint venture together with our Serbian partners, we will construct a modern radiopharmaceuticals production facility for the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases using the initial stage of construction facilities. This will make a significant contribution to the development of advanced nuclear medicine in Serbia and in the region as a whole. We plan to start working on the practical implementation of this project as early as in 2022”, stated Evgeny Pakermanov, President of Rusatom Overseas.
The Centre for Nuclear Science and Technology construction project is implemented within the framework of the Intergovernmental Agreement between the Government of Serbia and the Government of the Russian Federation signed in 2019 during the visit of the Russian President Vladimir Putin to Serbia.
