MOSCOW, September 16. /ITAR-TASS/. The US authorities will be guided by common sense, not a policy of sanctions, in peaceful nuclear cooperation with Russia, Trade Representative to the United States Alexander Stadnik told ITAR-TASS on Tuesday.
Russia still had a nuclear industry official working at Russia's trade mission in the country, fulfilling agreements on enriched uranium deliveries to generate nuclear fuel for power plants, he said. “Peaceful atomic cooperation sets a bright example of economic cooperation. Work in this sphere continues because American nuclear power plants operate on Russian raw materials generating electric power for ordinary US consumers,” the representative said.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was in charge of this activity in the US, Stadnik recalled. “Common sense should always exist in this issue,” he said. “American sanctions are quite pragmatic. As for strategic interests, the US is ready to make exclusions even from the sanctions list,” Stadnik added.
Delivery of Russian liquid rocket engines RD-180 used for orbiting American satellites was an example of bilateral cooperation, Stadnik said. The US Court of Federal Claims had banned the use of Russian rocket engines produced by leading developer Energomash for the US. However, the American government had asked the court to lift a temporary ban, noting that Energomash equipment purchases did not run counter to sanctions imposed on Russia.
In mid-August, America's United Launch Alliance (ULA) had received the first two Russian rocket engines RD-180 under a contract to buy 29. Three more engines were expected to be delivered in the near future, he said.
But Russian companies operating in energy, finance and production of items that could be used in domestic defense and industrial applications came under the impact of sanctions. “As far as I am concerned, all contracts on military-technical cooperation are frozen almost completely," Stadnik said, noting that the issue of licenses for dual-purpose produce was suspended.
Meanwhile, “many serious companies continue cooperation despite sanctions”, he said, giving a deal between Russian oil major Rosneft and US energy giant ExxonMobil in oil and gas prospecting and production in the Black Sea and Kara Sea as examples. Work with Boeing, metallurgical and chemical industries and in high technology was a further proof of partnership, he added.