MOSCOW (AP) – Russia plans to put its international uranium enrichment center into operation soon, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Monday, according to Russian news agencies.
The center, at Angarsk in Siberia, is to enrich uranium that would be used for civilian purposes by other countries that have made nonproliferation commitments; the center also would reprocess used uranium to ensure it is not converted into material that could be used for nuclear weapons.
President Vladimir Putin proposed setting up the center last year, and he and U.S. President George W. Bush adopted a joint initiative on creating such centers.
Ivanov said inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency would visit the center on Tuesday.
“We figure on beginning work there in the very near future,” Ivanov said, according to the RIA-Novosti and ITAR-Tass news agencies. The first country to participate will be Kazakhstan, a major producer of uranium, Ivanov was quoted as saying.
Russia has proposed trying to resolve the controversy over Iran’s nuclear program by providing reactor-grade enriched uranium and then having the used fuel shipped back to Russia. Iran has resisted the proposals, although it has not formally rejected them.
