Russia, US sign $5 bn uranium sales deal | India Gazette

Russia, US sign $5 bn uranium sales deal

India Gazette (IANS) Saturday 2nd February, 2008

Moscow/Washington, Feb 2 (RIA Novosti) Russia and the US have signed a trade deal allowing Russia to increase enriched uranium exports to the US, Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom said Saturday.

'The deal is worth $5-6 billion over the next 10 years,' said Rosatom director Sergei Kiriyenko, after signing the document together with US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.

The deal allows for sales of Russian enriched uranium directly to US utilities. Previously, such direct transactions were not permitted.

Gutierrez said: 'The agreement will encourage bilateral trade in Russian uranium products for peaceful purposes. It will also help to ensure that US utilities have an adequate source of enriched uranium for US utility consumers.'

A Rosatom spokesman said with the new trade deal the volumes of direct deliveries of uranium enrichment services may total 20 percent of the market.

Under the deal, Russian uranium exports to the US would increase slowly over a 10-year period, beginning in 2011.

In September, the US Court of International Trade lifted discriminatory, anti-dumping restrictions on Russian low-enriched uranium (LEU) supplies, ordering, the US Department of Commerce to cancel a 112 percent duty on Russian low-enriched uranium, which is used by US nuclear power plants, within 60 days.

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