• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Limits on Russian nuclear fuel supplies to U.S. unprofitable

RIA Novosti

07/04/2006 14:44

MOSCOW, April 7 (RIA Novosti) - Restrictions dating back 15 years on Russia's nuclear fuel supplies to the United States are unprofitable for both countries, a senior official with Russia's nuclear-technology exporter said Friday.

Lyudmila Zalimskaya, a deputy director of Technosnabexport, told RIA Novosti U.S.-based companies were unable to buy Russian-made centrifuge technologies because of a 1992 anti-dumping decision that had led to an unjustified rise in prices and market monopolization for U.S. enrichment companies.

Zalimskaya said the restrictions on U.S. imports of Russian low-enriched uranium "prevented American energy companies from acquiring access to centrifuge uranium enrichment technologies and Russian suppliers from exporting their products on competitive terms."

Restrictions were in place during the Cold War, but the collapse of the Soviet Union engendered more complications when Russia started to supply markets with naturally occurring uranium, which led to a fall in prices. The U.S. imposed trade restrictions and Russia can now only supply uranium through special mediator firms.

The U.S., Russia and the European Union are key players on the nuclear fuel market and use two uranium enrichment technologies: diffusion and centrifuge.

"The first is very expensive and inefficient, whereas Russia uses more progressive centrifuge uranium enrichment technology," Zalimskaya said.

Zalimskaya said the caps were not in the interests of either Russia or the U.S.

"Furthermore, these restrictions impede the normal, consistent advancement of our countries in cooperation on various civilian energy projects," Zalimskaya said.