Decision made on Cyclotron Centre project

Two hundred Slovak students will be allowed to take three-year internships at Russian nuclear research facilities, according to an agreement reached between the Governments of Slovakia and Russia, TASR reported on Wednesday. The talks were aimed at resolving commitments made for the project dating back to 1996 when the Slovak government decided to build the Cyclotron Centre, with the project being later abandoned. The internships for Slovak PhD applicants in fields such as nuclear power plants management, nuclear physics, theoretical nuclear physics, particle physics and nuclear technologies worth a total of €16 million will be secured by the Russian Government in the next 10-15 years. The agreement is scheduled to be formally signed by the end of June. According to Finance Minister Peter Kažimír (Smer-SD), the project won't require any additional money from state coffers. "We're talking billions of (Slovak) crowns, spent on the project, which I'm essentially trying to amortise today. I hope that the solution approved today will present at least a small degree of satisfaction in that we'll see at least some benefits from the project", added Kažimír in reference to its complicated abandonment. The Slovak government originally decided to build the Cyclotron Centre from the release of Russian debt worth $108 million (€94.7 million) dating back to the Soviet Union era.