Sergei Kiriyenko told a conference in Vienna that the city of Angarsk, about 5,000 km (3,100 miles) east of Moscow, has been chosen for the new center.
"Russia is prepared to start building an international uranium enrichment center on its territory, and we have chosen a site for it in Angarsk," Kiriyenko said on the sidelines of the International Atomic Energy Agency General Conference, which is focusing on ways to reduce the threat of nuclear proliferation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested at the start of this year setting up international centers offering nuclear fuel services in a move that was widely interpreted as an attempt to reach a compromise in the crisis over Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Speaking on Russian television Monday, Kiriyenko said the site for the center should be ready before the end of this year, whereas the center could be launched in early 2007.
Putin said in January Russia and other "nuclear club" countries could set up enrichment centers, providing equal access on market terms to nations seeking nuclear fuel under regulation and standards of non-proliferation.
Earlier this month Kiriyenko said that Russia could control up to 25% of the world's nuclear-fuel services market.
"Russia believes that 25% of the world's market in nuclear fuel-cycle services, including uranium enrichment, is an optimal share," Kiriyenko said. "Technically and technologically, we are well positioned for this."
More and more countries have opted to pursue carbon-free nuclear energy to meet growing electricity demand. But the spread of nuclear energy technologies was accompanied by the threat that nuclear energy could be used for military purposes.
United States President George Bush has also put forward the Advanced Energy Initiative, designed to promote both energy security and non-proliferation. It focuses on recycling and providing assistance to nations pursuing nuclear energy for civilian needs alone.
Under the 2004 agreement with the U.S., Russia repatriates highly enriched uranium from Soviet-built power plants in former Communist bloc countries. Since 2004, Russia has repatriated nuclear fuel from Serbia and Montenegro, Romania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Libya, Latvia, Poland and Uzbekistan.
