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Japan, Kazakh firms to tie-up in nuclear fuel processing: official
Tokyo (AFP) Dec 26, 2007 Japan's Kansai Electric Power Co. and trading house Sumitomo Corp. will tie up with Kazakhstan's state-run energy company in uranium processing for nuclear power generation, an official said Wednesday. The move is part of a wider effort by Asia's largest economy to forge closer ties with uranium-rich Kazakhstan so as to reduce its dependence on increasingly expensive Middle East crude oil. The Japanese firms will sign an agreement Wednesday with Kazatomprom in the aim of securing a stable supply of nuclear fuel, said Mitsuji Mori, a spokesman for Kansai Electric, which supplies power to a large swathe of western Japan. Under the tie-up, state-owned Kazatomprom will handle the reconversion stage of the nuclear fuel cycle at a facility in Kazakhstan to turn enriched uranium into powder. Kansai Electric and Sumitomo meanwhile will provide expertise and funding for necessary modifications of the plant, which is capable of producing roughly twice as much nuclear fuel as needed by Japan, Mori said. No financial details were disclosed, but according to the Nikkei business daily the cost of upgrading the facility alone is expected to be 70-80 billion yen (614-702 million dollars). International energy firms are vying to secure nuclear fuel amid growing energy demand, particularly in emerging economies such as China and India. Japan, which has virtually no natural energy resources of its own, relies heavily on Middle East oil to power its economy, and has been seeking to diversify its sources of energy. Japan's Toshiba Corp. announced in August that it had agreed to sell 10 percent of US nuclear power plant maker Westinghouse to Kazatomprom for 540 million dollars as part of a wider collaboration between the two firms. That deal came a year after Junichiro Koizumi became the first Japanese prime minister to tour Central Asia, including a visit to Kazakhstan where he offered aid and discussed cooperation in the energy sector. Related Links Nuclear Power News - Nuclear Science, Nuclear Technology Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com
Russia FM in Libya for nuclear talks
Tripoli (AFP) Dec 23, 2007Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks in Libya on Sunday as the longtime pariah state consolidated its return to the international fold. |
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