Russia to get back spent nuclear fuel
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Moscow, June 22, Ria-Novosti/IRNA -- Nuclear materials are currently scattered in 53 countries of the world and, to reduce the threat of terrorism, governments are under pressure to exert every effort to bring them back to their source. An inter-governmental agreement stipulating the re-exportation of fuel from Russian-made research reactors was signed in Moscow late May by Alexander Rumyantsev, director of Russia`s Federal Nuclear Energy Agency, and US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. Both sides agree the agreement will reduce the threat of terrorism as well as prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Washington`s Cooperative Threat Reduction program calls for returning all spent US and Soviet research-reactor fuel. Russia is concerned about this problem no less than the USA. However, its solution requires substantial monies, which cannot be provided by the federal treasury at this stage. The United States is trying to meet Russia halfway, offering financial support and suggesting a joint action plan. According to Abraham, the entire program for returning US and Russian nuclear fuel (reactor-conversion expenses included) will cost about $450 million. This sum total will be transferred to IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) accounts. The IAEA will supervise all operations, signing contracts with specialized Russian enterprises, which are part and parcel of the Federal Nuclear Energy Agency. Nuclear research reactors were built according to Soviet designs in 17 countries of the world. The list of such countries includes post-Soviet republics, as well as the former socialist bloc, i.e. Eastern Europe and some Far Eastern countries. Libya and Egypt also boasted such reactors. These research reactors, which utilize highly-enriched fuel (uranium content of up to 20 percent), are used for peaceful purposes, such as production of medical and agricultural isotopes, etc. Technically speaking, highly enriched nuclear fuel can be used to make nuclear warheads. Russia, which is the former Soviet Union`s legal successor, still assumes responsibility for all nuclear facilities, which were constructed elsewhere. Russia returned research-reactor fuel from Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Libya for storage and subsequent processing over the entire 2003 period with the help of the USA and IAEA. All highly enriched nuclear fuel from Soviet-made reactors will be returned to Russia by the end of 2005 and subsequently processed, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko noted. Some of those countries` reactors have already been shut down, but still retain nuclear fuel. Consequently, such fuel must be loaded inside special containers and taken to Russia. Other reactors continue to operate, requiring fresh nuclear fuel time and again. However, spent nuclear fuel is not ordinary garbage which can be dumped somewhere or recycled. Reactor-rod banks become irradiated, with uranium disintegrating all the same and nuclear reactors also turn out plutonium, which can be used to make a "dirty bomb", rather than a full-blown nuclear warhead. Mankind must now do its best to prevent terrorism, nipping all plans of terrorist ideologues in the bud, Alexander Rumyantsev, director of Russia`s Federal Nuclear Agency, believes. The modernization of nuclear reactors ranks among other anti- terrorist measures. Converted reactors will utilizelow-enriched, rather than weapons-grade uranium for fuel. Terrorists would thus perceive such fuel as something unattractive. A Russian nuclear physicist and full-time member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Mikhail Millionshchikov, claimed that it was impermissible to store any nuclear waste on this planet, and that new generations of physicists would solve this problem. This seems inevitable, but we must live long enough to see it happen. 2321/1432
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