Russia, Kazakhstan Set Up Nuclear Joint Ventures
October 12, 2006 -- Russia and Kazakhstan have made official a July 25 agreement to set up three nuclear joint ventures.
Documents detailing the activities and ownership of the future companies -- the outlines of which were hashed out
in July -- were signed today in Moscow.
Russia's Rosatom nuclear agency says in a statement each side will have a 50-percent stake in each of the three joint enterprises.
One company will extract Kazakh uranium ore that a second company will enrich in Russia's Irkutsk region.
The third joint venture will have its headquarters in the former Kazakh capital of Almaty. It will develop new small- and medium-size nuclear reactors for both domestic and export purposes.
Russian and Kazakh officials say the projects are part of joint efforts to develop peaceful nuclear energy.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev reportedly agreed on October 3 to his country's joining a Russian project to build an internationally monitored nuclear fuel-processing center in eastern Siberia.
(RIA-Novosti, Interfax)