President Kurmanbek Bakiyev told fellow member countries of the Eurasian Economic Community - Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Belarus - a third of the 60 storage facilities for uranium in his country needed urgent repairs.
"We would greatly appreciate it if [Eurasec] member states and primarily Russia would provide us a practical assistance in rebuilding these storages, particularly using the possibilities of Russia's Kurchatov Institute research center," he said.
He added that in 1940s Kyrgyzstan, now one of the poorest former Soviet republics, had a large-scale production of uranium, but since then many storage facilities had been damaged by the elements.
Kyrgyzstan produced uranium and processed significant amounts for modern-day Russia and Kazakhstan until the collapse of the Soviet Union, but production has since stopped. Tailing sites have raised health concerns since then because they are often sited close to populated areas.
