27 May 2004 19:48
Russian-US nuclear deal part of anti-terror war, minister says
Moscow, 27 May: International terrorists will not be able to get hold of uranium suitable for creating nuclear
charges, the head of the Federal Agency for Atomic Energy [formerly the Ministry of Atomic Energy], Aleksandr
Rumyantsev, has said. He told journalists that this was the main aim of the agreement signed by Russia and the USA today
on returning to Russia nuclear fuel from all Soviet-built foreign research reactors. "This is the first specific
step in implementing the US initiative to return highly-enriched uranium from all research reactors in the world to
countries where these nuclear materials can be safely processed and stored and where international terrorists cannot get
hold of them," he stressed.
US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, who signed the document, confirmed that "over the course of several years
the unused highly-enriched uranium from foreign reactors built using Russia and US technologies will be returned to
Russia and the USA respectively".
"The USA plans to allocate over 450m dollars for this," Abraham stressed. The US delegation specified that
"over 100m dollars of this sum is earmarked for Russia". The Russian Atomic Agency explained that "under
the agreement the USA will take on the greater part of the cost of returning the fuel to Russia".
Abraham commented that the USA had pledged "to withdraw uranium from more than 50 reactors in various countries
over a 10-year period". In addition, he said, "Russia and the USA will work together within the IAEA to draw
into the process of returning fuel a number of other leading countries which are putting highly-enriched uranium on the
world market". "Our goal is to cut the use of this fuel in the civil nuclear industry," Abraham said.
Rumyantsev said that "over a two-year period up to 500 kg of highly-enriched uranium from 17 research reactors
in the CIS countries, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia" is to be brought back to Russia.
The Russian Atomic Agency's official spokesman, Nikolay Shingarev, told ITAR-TASS that "Russia has already
transferred more than 862 kg of enriched uranium from research reactors in former Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria and
Libya". He stressed that "13 of the 17 countries where there are such reactors have agreed in principle to the
transfer". "At present talks are under way on the procedure for transferring nuclear fuel from the Czech
Republic, Ukraine and Uzbekistan". Shingarev stated.
"The research reactors currently operating will be modernized to use nuclear fuel with a lower level of
enrichment," Shingarev said. Their spent nuclear fuel will be shipped to Russia for reprocessing, he added.
[ITAR-TASS news agency] |
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