( RIA Novosti ) - Russia's gas uranium enrichment centrifuge technology will never be passed to other countries, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Friday.
Speaking after a visit to a centrifuge producing plant, one of four such facilities in Russia, in Kovrov, Ivanov said: " Russia long ago took on a nuclear non-proliferation commitment. Such products (gas centrifuges) are subject to export controls. Such technology will never be passed to anyone."
Valery Govorukhin, deputy head of Russia's nuclear equipment exporter Techsnabexport, said earlier Friday that Russia and China were to amend the 1991 agreement on the production and supply of gas centrifuges to go ahead with the construction of a fourth phase of a centrifuge plant in the Asian state.
Citing the Non-Proliferation Treaty and intellectual property rights, Russia has notably sought to review a provision, which says the countries could consider sharing centrifuge technology, citing the Non-Proliferation Treaty and intellectual property rights.
Russia has built three cascades of centrifuges at two power plants in China.
Ivanov said the country should maintain its share on the enrichment market, which stands at about 40%, and continue research in the sphere.
Ivanov, who is former defense minister, said Russia had produced eight generations of gas centrifuges by now and was working on a new generation, "which allows us to feel confident."
Russia is currently building five nuclear reactors for nuclear power plants in China, India and Iran. In October 2006, the company won a tender to build a plant in Belene, Bulgaria.