Uzbekistan to Start Supplying Low-Enriched Uranium for Japanese Power Stations in 2007
Uzbekistan will start supplying low-enriched uranium for Japanese power stations in 2007, a uranium mine chief said in remarks broadcast Friday.
About 300 tons of low-enriched uranium will be exported in 2007 to Japan via trading company Itochu Corp., Nikolai Kucherskii, the director of the state-owned Navoi mining complex, said in televized comments.
In late August, former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Uzbek President Islam Karimov signed agreements on uranium and energy supplies, boosting Japan’s involvement in the resource-rich ex-Soviet state.
In September, Uzbekistan also pledged to supply about 1,500 tons of low-enriched uranium to South Korea.
The ex-Soviet Central Asian nation owns about 5 percent of world’s uranium deposits, as well as considerable amounts of gold and natural gas.
Resource-poor Japan is eager to secure uranium deals for its energy industry highly dependent on nuclear power, and to reduce its reliance on energy supplies from the Middle East.
