At the sitting held on 3 September, the members of the Committee on Science and Technological Development considered the Information on the situation in Vinca Institute and the realisation of project VIND.

The sitting was chaired by Srboljub Zivanovic, Committee Chairman, and the Information was presented by Snezana Pajovic and Milos Nedeljkovic, State Secretaries at the Ministry of Science and Technological Development.

Before moving on to the agenda, the Committee Chairman reminded the Committee members of the National Assembly Rules of Procedure provisions regarding the duration of presentations by Committee members and submitters, as well as the time set out for discussion in the sittings of National Assembly working bodies.

In his opening address, Chairman Zivanovic mentioned the Committee sittings held on 4 September and 4 November 2009 and dealing with the information on the situation in Vinca Institute, as well as part of project VIND regarding the decommission of nuclear fuel into the Russian Federation, on the realisation of which a Treaty was signed and ratified by the National Assembly. He asked the Ministry representatives to inform the Committee on the current project realisation phase with a special focus on the storage of nuclear material and its transportation through Serbia.

In his address, State Secretary Nedeljkovic stated that the realisation of project VIND has progressed and is nearing the end. Serbia has realised a 25 million USD loan for the project and created PC Nuclear Facilities of Serbia which has taken over the decommissioning of nuclear material from Vinca Institute. The International Nuclear Energy Agency assisted the realisation of the project, and all necessary interdepartmental commissions have been created, as well as an interstate commission with the countries through which the nuclear material from Serbia is supposed to be transported. The international transportation rout has been traced, and the rout through Serbia is currently being dealt with, part of the transportation containers have been delivered and only the date of transportation through Serbia remains to be set. He reminded the Committee that project VIND is more complex than merely decommissioning nuclear fuel and that it also entails the reorganisation of the scientific and non-scientific part of the Institute.

State Secretary Snezana Pajovic explained the process of nuclear material transportation in more detail to the Committee members, emphasising how important and urgent it is to solve the issue of temporary radioactive waste dumps, three of which can be found in Vinca alone. She believes it necessary to quickly resolve the issue of temporary storage, which has had this status in Serbia for the last fifty years.

In the discussion, the Committee members showed interest in the safety of the facilities temporarily storing radioactive waste and the damages incurred due to corrosion of the waste storage bins, and asked whether the storage process and damages are continuously monitored and if they affected the environment.

After the Ministry representatives explained that, the damages in the waste storage locations notwithstanding, there are no adverse consequences to the environment due to the manner in which the process is conducted and monitored, the Committee members endorsed the Information on the situation in Vinca Institute and the realisation of project VIND and decided to visit the Institute and PC Nuclear Facilities of Serbia in the upcoming period.