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Outside View: Nuke power future -- Part 1

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  • Outside View: Nuke power future -- Part 1

    United Press International
    April 30 2008


    Outside View: Nuke power future -- Part 1


    Published: April 30, 2008 at 7:31 PM

    By SERGEI GOLUBCHIKOV
    UPI Outside View Commentator

    MOSCOW, April 30 (UPI) -- On April 22 in Yerevan, Russia and the
    former Soviet republic of Armenia signed a treaty to set up a joint
    venture for the exploration and mining of uranium and other minerals
    in Armenia.

    The company is being established on parity lines and will be
    registered within the next three months.

    It was signed by Vadim Zhivov, general director of the
    Atomredmetzoloto uranium holding, and Armenia's Environmental
    Protection Minister Aram Arutyunyan.

    ARMZ manages all of Russia's uranium assets and runs some projects in
    Kazakhstan.

    Today, 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 in the former Soviet Republics of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan,
    Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia.

    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 --
    nearly 1,000 feet -- 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. This has become economically feasible as global
    energy prices have soared since the 2003 Gulf War.

    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.

    --

    Next: The future uses and demand for uranium

    (Sergei Golubchikov is an associate professor at Russian State Social
    University. This article is reprinted by permission of RIA
    Novosti. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and
    do not necessarily reflect the views of RIA Novosti.)


    (United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written
    by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important
    issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United
    Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum,
    original submissions are invited.)
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