ANGARSK. Oct 25 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia and the United States are equally interested in maintaining the nuclear arms non-proliferation regime, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said.
"Russia has come up with the initiative to establish international uranium enrichment centers under the aegis of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Such centers will not only secure access of its members to the uranium enrichment process, but will solve the issue of enriched uranium reserves [used in nuclear power stations]," Ivanov said at a meeting dedicated to prospects of establishing an international uranium enrichment center on Thursday.
Russia's initiative "rules out the problem of maintaining the nuclear non-proliferation regime," he said.
"U.S. position is similar to ours. Both Russia and the U.S. are equally interested in maintaining the non-proliferation regime," Ivanov said.
"Usually, fuel for nuclear power stations is a commercial product, and any state, if it is an IAEA member and a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has the right to buy fuel for NPPs on the market," the first deputy premier said.
"But this is true only in theory. One fears that a certain country will be deprived of the access to uranium for certain political reasons," Ivanov said.
Members of international uranium enrichment centers should have access to uranium reserves, he said. "We believe that such reserves should be enough to produce fuel for two loads of a millionary reactor. This stockpile will be situated in Angarsk under the IAEA supervision," Ivanov said.
"If any political force majeure situation, which is not linked with violating the nuclear arms non-proliferation regime, emerges such an approach allows any country to receive low-enriched uranium in the amount that is enough to plan, build, and exploit NPPs for decades," Ivanov said.