By RIA Novosti
United Nations : Russia has said it will allow any country access to a uranium enrichment centre currently being constructed in east Siberia for peaceful use of nuclear energy within the framework of nuclear control regime, Russia’s ambassador to the UN said.
The centre, part of Moscow’s non-proliferation initiative to create a network of enrichment centres under the UN nuclear watchdog’s supervision, will be based at a chemical plant in Angarsk. The centre will also be responsible for the disposal of nuclear waste.
“The centre, co-founded by Russia and Kazakhstan, will be open to third countries without any political preconditions,” Vitaly Churkin said Monday.
He said the centre would play an important role in nuclear non-proliferation by ensuring access to peaceful nuclear energy for all countries complying with their obligations in that realm.
Russia and Kazakhstan, which holds 15 percent of the world’s uranium reserves, signed an agreement in October 2006 to establish their first joint venture to enrich uranium, intended to begin in 2013.
Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said last Thursday that other countries have shown interest in the Angarsk project.
Ivanov also said fuel for nuclear power plants is a market product and any country that is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and represented on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would have the right to buy it.
Ivanov said, “Due to a variety of political reasons, a country may be denied access to uranium.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin first floated the idea of joint nuclear enrichment centres early last year, in a bid to defuse tension over Iran’s controversial nuclear programme.
The president said the centres would give countries transparent access to civilian nuclear technology without provoking international fears that enriched uranium could be used for covert weapons programmes.