ARMENIA HAS NO INTENTION TO PROCESS URANIUM ON ITS TERRITORY

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Dec 24 2007

YEREVAN, December 24. /ARKA/. Armenia has no intention to process
uranium on its territory, Armenia’s Minister of Energy Armen Movsisian
told journalists.

"A small country like Armenia should not have both nuclear power plant
and uranium processing enterprise at the same time," the Minister said.

He pointed out the impossibility to assess and establish means of
processing of uranic ore right now as Armenia will have an opportunity
to extract it only in a year the earliest.

According to the Minister, Armenia needs some 2-5 years to carry
out the required studies and clarify the processing matter. He also
pointed out that Armenia’s uranium resources are not quite extensive
to process it on the spot due to the high costs of processing.

Besides, it might take on a serious political context, he said.

"Angarsk is the best place for processing uranium with an outlook to
use it in atomic energy; Russia and Kazakhstan have already established
a consortium there," the Minister said.

Earlier Armenia said that it has no intention to enrich uranium on
its territory and plans to join the International Centre for Uranium
Enrichment in the city of Angarsk (Irkutsk region of Russia). In that
case Armenia will have access to the overall technological chain,
including the extraction, enrichment and utilization of the nuclear
fuel in the Armenian NPP.

The International Centre for Uranium Enrichment was founded on
the basis of "Angarsk Electrolyse Chemical Plant" by the Russian
Tekhsnabexport and Kazakhstani NAK Kazatomprom in October 2006. In
the coming months, Russia and the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) are to sign an agreement on establishing a nuclear fuel reserve
in the international centre in Angarsk.