WASHINGTON — The U.S. Trade and Development Agency planned to host a technical workshop with delegations from “Europe and Eurasia” at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the second week of October, an official said here Wednesday.
At the workshop, the delegations would meet with U.S. companies, Carl Kress, a regional director from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), said at the Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Energy Security Summit.
According to a press release from USTDA in March, the workshop in Oak Ridge will be the first in a four-part series of workshops in the U.S. and in Europe aimed at supporting U.S.-led advancement of civil nuclear energy deployment to countries globally, particularly in Europe.
The workshop will be a “great opportunity for U.S. companies who want to work in those countries to meet with those suppliers,” Kress told an audience of nuclear-industry professionals and government officials.
However, the kickoff workshop is still in the planning phases and USTDA still needs to award a contract to a vendor who will host it, Kress told the Monitor here.
“We’re finalizing it now,” Kress said. “We’re in the final negotiations process.”
USTDA promotes U.S. exports, including infrastructure. The U.S. state department, with technical assistance from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the DOE, is responsible for negotiating what’s commonly referred to as 123 agreements. According to NNSA, 123 agreements are meant to facilitate “peaceful nuclear cooperation” with other entities, including exporting materials, and list out nonproliferation requirements for the agreement.
