This is actually more news that was published on Tuesday the 11th, but I thought it was important enough to add more to it.
Russian-U.S. Atomic Trade Pact Takes Effect
Russia and the United States today formally placed into effect a new civilian atomic trade pact enabling nuclear technology transfers and related private-sector initiatives between the two countries, Reuters reported (see GSN, Dec. 10, 2010).
The "123 agreement" entered into force when U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle and Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov swapped diplomatic notes in Moscow. The pact establishes a regulatory pathway for relevant nonmilitary manufacturing arrangements, business ventures and scientific studies, and it allows for federally approved trade involving nuclear power equipment and other atomic parts not subject to special controls.
The deal might permit Russia to reprocess used U.S.-origin reactor fuel, generating additional fuel as well as weapon-usable plutonium. Still, the agreement could help Russia and the United States offer atomic power to third-party nations that might otherwise pursue energy capabilities with military applications, according to U.S. government sources (Steve Gutterman, Reuters, Jan. 11).
"These new technologies will help us combat the global threat of nuclear proliferation and also create new commercial opportunities for American and Russian companies to produce cleaner, more reliable and safer nuclear energy," the Associated Press quoted Beyrle as saying at a ceremony marking the agreement's entry into force.
Ryabkov added: "What we are trying to achieve is to create new -- I would even say innovative -- technologies of the nuclear fuel cycle, develop the reactor technologies to provide on the one hand economic and energy efficiency ... and on the other hand to reduce the risks of the potential improper use of the nuclear materials needed for these activities" (Lynn Berry, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Jan. 11).
The proposal originated with the Bush administration but was withdrawn from congressional consideration in 2008 as part of the diplomatic fallout from Russia's military conflict with Georgia, Reuters reported. The Obama administration last May submitted the deal to Congress, which had 90 days of "continuous session" to either take no action and allow the agreement to be implemented or to approve legislation that would curtail or kill the accord (Gutterman, Reuters).
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