|
Russia ready to join US-led uranium fuel bank
VIENNA - Russia is ready to join the United States in creating a bank of uranium fuel for countries which pledge not to make enriched uranium but wants strict regulations, the Russian atomic chief said on Tuesday. âWe support this American initiative,â Alexander Rumyantsev, who is head of the Russian federal nuclear agency, said in Vienna.But he said it should be âincorporated in international agreementsâ since current US-Russian efforts to turn weapons-grade highly enriched uranium (HEU) into low-enriched uranium (LEU) were governed under a bilateral, US-Russian political agreement. The fuel bank should be overseen by the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency, Rumyantsev said. âThe IAEA is the organization that will have to develop the regulations and rules for such a mechanism,â he said.
A senior US diplomat said the offer was made in order to âkick-startâ the creation of a multinational fuel bank so that countries could have access to nuclear fuel without having the capability to make it themselves. This so-called âbreak-outâ capability is a proliferation risk since HEU can be either fuel for reactors or bomb material. LEU, which is also reactor fuel, is not a direct bomb risk. Both US President George W. Bush and IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei have made proposals to create an international fuel service but details have never been made clear. The senior US diplomat said Bodman was trying to deliver the message âthat the United States strongly supports the peaceful use of nuclear energy.â The diplomat said the exact amount of HEU the United States is ready to âblend downâ is 17.4 metric tons, which is enough for hundreds of atom bombs and would make enough low enriched uranium to power 10 nuclear reactors. The HEU is an amount âcurrently in the US inventory but declared in excess of national security needs.â The blended-down LEU will be âavailable about 2009.â
Posted by: Steve White 2005-09-28 |
||
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=130721 |