Russia and Kazakhstan To Build International Uranium Enrichment Facility

May 10 (EIRNS) - Presidents Vladimir Putin and Nursultan Nazarbayev issued a bilateral agreement today in Astana to build an international uranium enrichment/disposal center in Angarsk, East Siberia, Novosti reported. Putin said that the two sides "consider this document the first step in the implementation of our initiative to create a global nuclear energy infrastructure," and will come online in 2013

Russia and Kazakhstan agreed last year to set up their first joint venture to enrich uranium in October 2006, with Kazakhstan's land area containing 15% of the world's uranium reserves. The document was signed by Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Russian Federal Agency of Nuclear Power and Kazakh Energy Minister Baktykozha Izmukhambetov. "With Kazakhstan we possess the entire technological chain - from producing uranium to achieving the final product, low-enriched uranium," Kiriyenko said.

Kiriyenko said that any country could join the project by signing a similar intergovernmental agreement, therefore, the Russian proposal for joint nuclear enrichment centers, launched last year, allows nations "transparent" access to civilian nuclear technology while avoiding reactions about possible nuclear weapons programs. Russia has made this proposal to Iran.