MOSCOW, February 8 (RIA Novosti) - One uranium enrichment center would be sufficient for Russia's nuclear energy needs, a top nuclear energy official said Wednesday.
Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, said: "It will be enough for Russia to have only one uranium enrichment center, and four or five similar centers internationally, for the main regions."
Russian President Vladimir Putin had said on January 31 that uranium enrichment centers could be set up in other "nuclear club" countries, providing access on a non-discriminatory basis to nations seeking for nuclear fuel for power stations.
Kiriyenko said it was necessary to solve several tasks in the nuclear energy sphere, including international ones. Among these he cited the formation of an international center for uranium enrichment, an international center for the maintenance of spent nuclear fuel, and an international nuclear energy training center for personnel. He also said new discoveries in the sphere of nuclear energy must be integrated into the nuclear program.
He also said it was important to form a national holding for the nuclear energy sector.
"The holding must incorporate the whole technological cycle of the civic nuclear energy," Kiriyenko said. "That is why we must not only restore, but expand the technological chain of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building."
Most of the nuclear power infrastructure of the former Soviet Ministry of Medium Machine Building fell to Russian hands after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, but some of its elements are located in other Commonwealth of Independent States countries. Uranium is mined in Kazakhstan, while Ukraine produces turbines.
