Russia, U.S. in talks on uranium enrichment joint venture

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RIA Novosti, PUBLISHED March 25, 2011

Russia and the United States have started talks on setting up a joint venture to enrich uranium, the head of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said on Thursday.

The uranium enrichment facility will be built on U.S. territory with Russian technology.

"Building such a facility... is a long way away, which cannot be covered in one day, but today we started moving in that direction," Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko said.

He said the deal was a "landmark" development in the context of the recent accident at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant, hit by blasts and fires after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake.

"When two states, leaders of the global nuclear market, sign a long-term deal in such a situation - this gives a certain answer about the future development of the global nuclear energy sector," he said.

During Kiriyenko's visit, Russian state-controlled nuclear equipment exporter Techsnabexport (Tenex), fully owned by Rosatom, signed a $2.8 billion ten-year deal with USEC to supply low-enriched uranium. Under the deal, Russia will supply USEC with 21 million separate work units (SWU) over a period of ten years starting from 2013.

Topics: NFC, Russia, USA

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