First uranium enrichment center to open in Siberia – Kiriyenko
The first international uranium enrichment center will be established in Angarsk in southeast Siberia’s Irkutsk Region, Russia’s nuclear chief said Saturday.
Sergei Kiriyenko said Russian and U.S. experts had already started combining Russia’s proposal to create a network of international uranium enrichment centers, and a U.S. initiative on global partnership in the nuclear sphere.
“One of the elements of convergence [in the initiatives] is the idea to create international centers. We will begin with an international center for uranium enrichment,” Kiriyenko said.
He said the center would have to be put under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and that Russian legislation would be amended accordingly.
“Appropriate amendments to Russian legislation are being drafted today,” he said.
Kiriyenko described the international uranium enrichment center in Angarsk as “the first step to be taken by Russia in this direction.”
However, he said it did not imply Russia had given up on its idea to set up a joint venture for enriching Iranian uranium on its soil, and that the Angarsk center would provide the Islamic Republic with opportunities to develop its civilian nuclear industry.
