Slovakia to sign nuclear energy cooperation agreement with US, PM Fico says

Slovakia will sign an agreement on nuclear power cooperation with the United States next week, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Saturday, as the country moves toward a deal to build a ‌new nuclear power unit with U.S. help.

Slovakia, which ‌currently has five nuclear power ‌reactors at two plants, has been in talks with Washington since last year to build a large plant with U.S. ​group Westinghouse.

Fico said on Saturday ‌the plant would ⁠have capacity of almost 1,200 megawatts (MW), bigger than existing units.

“In cooperation ‌with American partners, we want to build a new huge block in purely state ownership ‌on the grounds of the existing nuclear power plant in Jaslovske Bohunice,” he said, without elaborating.

Fico said he wanted ‌to participate ​in ‌the signing of the more general agreement on U.S.-Slovak cooperation in the nuclear sector in Washington on Friday. He ‌did not give more details on the signing.

The Slovak government approved an inter-governmental deal ​with the U.S. in October for the construction of a new unit, and Fico said in December U.S. President Donald Trump had ⁠invited him to the United States ​during this year’s soccer World Cup ⁠for the signing of a nuclear power deal between the two countries.

(Reporting by Jason Hovet in Prague; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)