Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Sept. 29
By Demir Azizov- Trend:
The last sources of highly enriched uranium were taken out of Uzbekistan by Russia for further processing, the message of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Sept. 29.
The message said that the fuel has been transferred from the IIN-3M reactor of the FOTON enterprise, near the country's capital of Tashkent. The reactor, its equipment and fuel were manufactured by the enterprises of the Ministry of Medium Machine-Building Industry of the USSR. The reactor was commissioned in 1975.
The highly enriched uranium has been transferred to the Mayak reprocessing facility in the Russian Federation.
Under the umbrella of the Tri-partite (IAEA-USA-Russian Federation) Initiative, also known as the Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return (RRRFR) Program, the shipment was carried out and completed with the collaboration of all three parties, as well as Uzbekistan.
Since 2012, Uzbekistan has been developing a plan for decommissioning of the IIN-3M reactor.
However, the country has no conditions to meet the required standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to store the liquid fuel.
In 2012, Uzbekistan and Russia signed an intergovernmental agreement to cooperate in taking the irradiated nuclear fuel of research reactors to Russia.
The IAEA is supporting member states' efforts to replace highly enriched uranium with low enriched uranium in research reactors worldwide for achieving their non-proliferation objectives.
Edited by CN