Russia-US energy deal
May 26, 2009The deal, which will run from 2014 to 2020, calls for Russia to supply enriched uranium fuel rods to nuclear power plants in the United States.
A total of three separate agreements were signed between the state-owned Russian company, TENEX, and the US group, Fuelco, in Moscow on Tuesday.
Sergei Kiriyenko, the director of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency, Rosatom, said the agreements could be "the start of a new era of cooperation" between the nuclear sectors of the two countries.
The deals were sealed after five years of tough negotiations. Washington and Moscow signed a deal last year authorizing Russian uranium exports to the US civil nuclear energy industry.
Kiriyenko said Russia would also examine the possibility of building a storage facility in the US for partially enriched uranium. "Such a facility would improve our capacity to supply our customers," he said.
Earlier this month Russia struck a similar deal with Japan to exchange technology for nuclear fuel.
gb/AFP/dpa
Editor: Susan Houlton