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NUCLEAR
NEWS FOR LIFE
RADIATION |
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U.S., Kazakhstan Sign Nuclear Waste Pact
[The following is an excerpt of an article distributed
by Reuters
reproduced in part here under the Fair Use Act..]
07:13 a.m. Nov 19, 1997 Eastern
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Kazakhstan have signed an accord to dispose of waste from the central Asian country's only nuclear power station, in a move U.S. officials said reduced proliferation risks near the border of Iran.
Under the accord signed Tuesday by Energy Secretary Federico Pena and Kazakh First Deputy Prime Minister Akhmetzhan Yesimov, Kazakhstan will close down the aging power plant at Aktau on the Caspian Sea by 2003, the White House said.
The Aktau station contains a breeder reactor that produces plutonium-bearing spent fuel. The station ``has been a concern'' because of its location about 200 miles from Iran, Rose Gottemoeller, Department of Energy director for non-proliferation, told reporters.
[snipped]
A White House statement said a joint program would secure, stabilize
and store plutonium-bearing spent nuclear fuel assemblies currently in
the Aktau reactor's core or its spent fuel pool, ``and alleviate a significant
proliferation risk''.
[snipped]
Tuesday's agreement follows a project under which the United States removed 1,300 pounds of highly enriched uranium from Kazakhstan. The country had nuclear weapons on its territory when it was part of the Soviet Union but has got rid of them since independence in 1991.
The waste disposal accord was one of several signed Tuesday on nuclear issues. Others dealt with peaceful nuclear coperation, setting up nuclear test monitoring stations in Kazakhstan, and cooperation on preventing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
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