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Bush Administration’s Nuclear Fuel Supply Proposal Unlikely to Appeal to Russia, Experts Say
Russian experts have expressed skepticism about a proposed U.S. nuclear energy consortium, the Russian periodical Gazeta reported Tuesday (see GSN, Feb. 6). The Bush administration has proposed that Moscow and Washington provide nuclear fuel to Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty signatories intent on pursuing a nuclear energy program. The two countries would then collect the spent fuel to curb any proliferation risk. “This is more a political statement on America’s part based on a desire for total control of this environment,” said Brokerkreditservis analyst Vyacheslav Zhabin. “If the joint venture is set up, we will get a lot of problems with monitoring, and the Americans will be constantly restricting Russia.” “Russia has spoken repeatedly on this, and the IAEA option aired earlier seems more interesting,” said Vladimir Poplavskiy, deputy director of the Physics and Power Engineering Institute, referring to a similar proposal by International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei (see GSN, Nov. 7, 2005). “I regard the idea as interesting, although it is my opinion that the creation of a bilateral venture is unlikely, for other countries will most likely want to participate in the project,” said Anton Khlopkov, deputy director of Russia’s PIR Center think tank. “But if the United States names the cessation of Russia’s cooperation with Iran as one of the conditions for setting up the joint venture … the project will not be implemented. This is unacceptable to Russia,” Khlopkov added (Mikhail Krasnov, Gazeta, Feb. 7).
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