Russia Uranium salesI've seen some verbiage lately that Russia was going to end cooperation agreements with the US on uranium. However, this is something that will take some time:
USEC to lose sole Russian uranium rights - Rosatom
Sat Jul 15, 2006 11:39am ET
ST PETERSBURG, Russia, July 15 (Reuters) - U.S. uranium trader USEC Inc. (USU.N: Quote, Profile, Research) will lose its exclusive right to import Russian nuclear fuel to the United States by 2009 at the latest, Russia's atomic energy chief said on Saturday.
Sergei Kiriyenko said an agreement on civil nuclear cooperation announced by U.S. President George W. Bush and Russia's President Vladimir Putin contained a clear mandate for the U.S. government to end the monopoly.
If that does not happen, Russia will seek to overturn the monopoly in the courts anyway, said Kiriyenko.
Bush and Putin, meeting on the eve of a Group of Eight summit in Russia's second city of St Petersburg, issued a statement on Friday on civil nuclear cooperation.
It included a line that the two sides recognised the benefit of a commercial trade in civil nuclear material and technology.
"As far as getting rid of monopoly intermediaries is concerned, (that is) the magic phrase," Kiriyenko, head of the Rosatom agency, told a news briefing. "That is all we need."
He said Russian officials were in "active negotiations today" with the office of the U.S. Trade Representative on ending the USEC monopoly.
"By my estimates the process will take two or three years. If we take the negotiated route it can be resolved more quickly, in the course of this year. If in the courts it will be resolved in the course of two or three years." Continued...