Moldova will sign the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management adopted in Vienna on September 5, 1997. The Parliament made such a decision at its Friday's sitting, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Joint Convention does not cover the Transnistrian region. It applies to spent fuel and radioactive waste resulting from civilian nuclear reactors and applications and to spent fuel and radioactive waste from military or defense programs if and when such materials are transferred permanently to and managed within exclusively civilian programs, or when declared as spent fuel or radioactive waste for the purpose of the Convention by the Contracting Party. The Convention also applies to planned and controlled releases into the environment of liquid or gaseous radioactive materials from regulated nuclear facilities. According to Deputy Minister of the Environment Oleg Marza, Moldova must sign the Convention given the importance of the international cooperation in increasing the safety of spent fuel management and radioactive waste management through the bilateral and multilateral mechanisms of the given Convention. The radioactive waste in Moldova is currently managed by a specialized unit of the Ministry of the Interior, which will be responsible for the implementation of the Joint Convention. The Convention will come into force 90 days after submitting the required documents.