On May 10, 2007, in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, Sergey Kiriyenko, the head of the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom), and Baktykozha Izmukhambetov, Kazakhstan Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, signed an agreement to establish an International Center for Uranium Enrichment, in Angarsk, Russia. The agreement was signed in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev. [1]

Kiriyenko announced that “with the signing of the agreement on the establishment of the Center the process of its creation is over.” [2] The Center was proposed by Putin in January 2006 as a tool to prevent the further spread of technologies used for uranium enrichment, which could produce both civilian nuclear power reactor fuel and, with higher-level enrichment, material usable in nuclear weapons. [3] According to the plan, countries that seek to exercise their right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes under Article IV of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty would be able to participate in an international venture based in Russia to produce enriched uranium fuel, rather than develop indigenous enrichment capabilities. Partners in the international enterprise would obtain access to its fuel output, but not to the enrichment technology used in the facility. Russia designed the enterprise initially as part of an effort to convince Iran not to establish its own uranium enrichment capability, but Tehran rejected the initiative.

The facility in Angarsk became operational in the fall of 2006. Its role as an international fuel center could not be realized, however, until at least one other country joined it. The plan for the joint venture structure of the facility allowed Russia to address not only financial issues, but legal issues as well. For example, a new law on nuclear industry reform, adopted in February 2007 in anticipation of the joint venture, permits Russia to import and enrich foreign uranium and re-export the enriched material without the need to change the formal ownership of the imported uranium. [4]

In October 2006, Russia’s TechSnabExport and Kazakhstan’s KazAtomProm signed an agreement to establish a closed joint stock company, known as the “Uranium Enrichment Center,” which created the basic arrangements for the International Center. The signing of the agreement on May 10 has completed the process. Kiriyenko emphasized the significant scale of the new entity by pointing out that together Russia and Kazakhstan hold the largest uranium deposits in the world and that Russia accounts for 45 percent of the world’s uranium enrichment capability. [5]

Now that the legal, financial, and industrial elements of the new structure are finally in place, Vladimir Putin’s year-and-a-half-old initiative can be considered implemented. Russia will next seek to expand membership in the joint venture; China and South Korea have been mentioned as potential partners. [6] Meanwhile, the offer to include Iran, if it renounces domestic enrichment of uranium, remains on the table.


Nikolai Sokov – Monterey Institute Center for Nonproliferation Studies