The U.S. and Slovenia, still weighing construction of its second civilian nuclear reactor, signed a memorandum of understanding concerning strategic civilian nuclear cooperation, the State Department announced Tuesday.
The memorandum will “strengthen and expand strategic ties between the United States and a partner country by providing a framework for cooperation on civil nuclear issues and for engagement between experts from government, industry, national laboratories, and academic institutions,” State wrote.
Slovenia has been a non-nuclear-weapon state under the U.N. Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons since 1997. The country’s 700-watt civilian nuclear power plant at Krsko, with its Westinghouse reactor, has operated since 1983, prior to the country’s independence from the former Yugoslavia, according to the English-language website for plant operator Nuklearna Elektrarna Krsko.
Slovenia and Croatia each use electricity generated by Krsko. Earlier this year, the Slovenian government said it would decide by 2027 whether to build a second reactor at the plant.
