Russia to share enrichment and reprocessing technology with India

Russia today said it will share the enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technology with India for production of nuclear fuel for atomic power plants in the country.

"We plan to set up joint facilities for enrichment and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel in India and some European countries. In China we already have such facility," Sergei Kiriyenko, the chief of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, said at the three-day Atomexpo-2010 international forum.

Russia is completing two nuclear reactors at Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu and is to build six more, including in Haripur in West Bengal.

Kiriyenko also invited the countries involved in developing atomic energy to invest in nuclear fuel joint ventures on the Russian soil to ensure sustained fuel supplies for their power plants.

At its today's session chaired by Anil Kakodkar, former chief of India's Atomic Energy Commission, Kiriyenko said Russia is also creating a buffer stock of nuclear fuel, which will be under the control of International Atomic Energy Commission (IAEA) to guarantee the smooth functioning of nuclear reactors in any part of the world in case of political and market constraints.

At the start of his speech, Kiriyenko greeted Kakodkar as the "world's one of the most outstanding" nuclear scientists, who has made immense contribution to the development of atomic energy.