Russia to supply uranium to Japan

A Russian firm has finalized agreements with two Japanese companies on deliveries of low-enriched uranium for nuclear electrical power generation. The Russian contractor is OAO Tekhsnabeksport, which trades uranium fuel and fuel processing services abroad and is a subsidiary of Russian state-run Rosatom civil nuclear corporation. Tekhsnabeksport Director Aleksei Grigorev said, "We would like to emphasize that, despite the events at the Fukushima NPP (nuclear power plant) in Japan, Tekhsnabeksport has finalized agreements on two new contracts for delivery of Russian uranium product to ensure the specific needs of Japanese power companies. "Since the situation in Japan today is difficult, I will not name these companies at the present time but we have already had contracts with them and these companies are not new to us," Rosatom reported on its Web page Friday. Grigorev added that Tekhsnabeksport was working with 10 of the 11 Japanese companies involved in nuclear power generation.