MOSCOW—Russia and the U.S. signed an agreement Tuesday on conducting feasibility studies for converting Russian research nuclear reactors to using low-enriched uranium.
Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Russia's nuclear agency Rosatom, and U.S. deputy energy secretary Daniel Poneman signed the document.
Some research reactors in the United States already have been converted, part of a nonproliferation initiative to reduce the presence of uranium enriched to a sufficiently high concentration to be used in nuclear weapons.
A text of the agreement was not immediately available after the signing ceremony.
"As a general principle, we believe the right thing to do is to take highly enriched uranium where available and convert research reactors using that to low-enriched uranium, as a global matter that is a safer and more proliferation-resistant way to go," Poneman told reporters.
"It's fitting and proper that both Russia and the United States should be full participants in that process," he said.
Poneman said U.S.-Russian cooperation on such issues demonstrates the increasingly globalized nature of nuclear energy.
A Rosatom subsidiary last month bought 51 percent of the shares in Uranium One, a Canadian company whose holdings include uranium mines in the United States.
Responding to media commentary that the deal indicated the U.S. was losing control of strategic components, Poneman said: "I would say it reflects a misunderstanding of the fundamental nature of the international nuclear fuel cycle. Over a number of decades a very elaborate and complex multilayered fuel cycle has developed around the world."
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/12/07/russia_us_ink_agreement_on_reactor_conversion/
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