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Outside View: Russia-Armenia Uranium Pact

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  • Outside View: Russia-Armenia Uranium Pact

    OUTSIDE VIEW: RUSSIA-ARMENIA URANIUM PACT
    By Sergei Golubchikov

    United Press International
    April 24 2008

    MOSCOW, April 23 (UPI) -- Russia and Armenia signed a treaty Tuesday
    in Yerevan to set up a joint venture for the exploration and mining
    of uranium and other minerals in Armenia. A joint company is being
    established on parity lines and will be registered within the next
    three months.

    The treaty was signed by Vadim Zhivov, general director of the
    Atomredmetzoloto uranium holding, and Armenian Environmental Protection
    Minister Aram Arutyunyan. ARMZ manages all of Russia's uranium assets
    and runs some projects in Kazakhstan.

    AMRZ ranks second in the world for uranium reserves. This is the
    result of the nuclear industry's restructuring, and in particular
    the pooling of its core plants under one umbrella.

    With the focus on nuclear power, Russia is now planning its uranium
    future carefully to warrant the successful development of its nuclear
    industry.

    The collapse of the Soviet Union has left Russia high and dry, with
    many well-researched fields outside its boundaries, mainly in Central
    Asia (Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan).

    For now, Russia has only one uranium-containing deposit, in the Chita
    Region, with its Streltsovsky mining and chemical plant. Its total
    reserves are estimated at 150,000 metric tons of ore. Other fields
    in Eastern Siberia have a further 70,000 metric tons of explored raw
    materials. Altogether, the proven reserves amount to 615,000 metric
    tons. This figure also includes 344,000 metric tons from Elkon,
    the largest recently explored Russian field located in the north
    of Yakutia-Sakha.

    Russia's uranium-bearing provinces present a challenge for
    developers. The largest of them -- the Aldanskoye deposit -- can be
    developed only by sinking. The ore occurs at a depth of 300 meters,
    and mining is unprofitable.

    During authoritarian times that problem did not exist: northern uranium
    was obtained by the free labor of prisoners, including political
    ones. In Chukotka, for example, they supplied the material for the
    first atomic bombs. As prison camps closed down, uranium mining in
    the northern latitudes stopped.

    Now a search is on for an economically feasible way of opening up the
    mothballed mines. Uranium prices are increasing throughout the world;
    over the past three years they have doubled, and not surprisingly. One
    cubic centimeter of uranium is equivalent to 60,000 liters of gasoline,
    110 to 160 metric tons of coal, or 60,000 cubic meters of natural gas.

    Being highly concentrated, this fuel can be easily and cheaply
    transported any distance. Its price factored in as part of generated
    power is comparatively small. So even a massive rise in uranium fuel
    prices has little effect on nuclear power costs. Since 1997 they have
    gone up by just 7 percent.

    With current uranium production at 3,400 metric tons a year, its
    reserves will last for half a century. How will Russia's nuclear
    industry fare once the explored reserves run out? There are two
    options. The first is to look for an alternative way of supplying
    fuel for the nuclear industry. One is to use so-called fast reactors
    (fast-breeder reactors).

    Their advantages are moderate power intensity and low fuel
    consumption. Fast reactors can use uranium from poor fields, with a
    low degree of enrichment.

    Another way is to recycle spent fuel, namely to obtain plutonium fuel
    separated from the uranium extracted from nuclear reactors.

    Russia has cornered a sizeable part of the world's future uranium
    market, and its share could grow as new fields are tapped in Eastern
    Siberia.

    It can also receive supplies from other countries -- ones that have
    no nuclear industry of their own or lack enriching technologies.

    Russia already owns 49 percent of the Russian-Kazakh Zarechnoye Co.,
    which is developing a field of 19,000 metric tons of uranium.

    In 2007 Australia became one of Russia's uranium partners. It boasts
    the world's largest uranium deposits. The leaders of the two countries,
    Vladimir Putin and John Howard, signed an agreement in Sydney, under
    which Russia will receive $1 million worth of raw Australian uranium
    per year for its nuclear needs. The document will come into effect
    once the two parliaments ratify it.

    Mongolia is also going to play an important role. Theoretically,
    its natural uranium resources put the country at the cutting edge of
    the world market, and just need to be explored.

    Russia's potential uranium reserves (natural and weapons-grade)
    will enable it to claim 45 percent of the world's uranium enrichment
    services market by 2030 and 20 percent to 25 percent of the nuclear
    plant construction market.

    Given closed nuclear cycle technologies (fast-breeder reactors), these
    resources will be able to meet global power needs for 1,000 years.

    --

    (Sergei Golubchikov is an associate professor at Russian State
    Social University. This article was printed with permission from RIA
    Novosti. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and
    do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.)
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