Restrictions on imports from Russia of low-enriched uranium have been in force since the Soviet era. Russia is currently allowed to operate on the U.S. market without a 116% import duty only through the USEC, a special intermediary agent, under the HEU-LEU Conversion program, but is facing anti-dumping procedures.
"There are two aspects here," said Sergei Novikov, press secretary of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power. "The first concerns the talks per se and possible U.S. Commerce Department decisions and the second concerns the work of our legal experts, who are studying all possible ways to overcome the dumping procedure envisioned by the U.S. laws."
Agency head Sergei Kiriyenko downplayed the political undertones of the issue during a visit to the U.S. in May.
"We believe that this is a commercial issue, which we intend to resolve in the framework of existing U.S. legislation," Kiriyenko said then. "We are not demanding any preferential treatment, any benefits or special conditions, but we are demanding equal rights and equal opportunities for competition on the U.S. market."
But the U.S. Department of Commerce appeared to dent his hopes Friday when it said it intended to keep in place the existing restrictions, which President Vladimir Putin obliquely criticized also Friday by calling for open market competition.
At a meeting with top officials in the nuclear sphere, Putin said Russian companies should be allowed to compete.
"Our companies still often encounter unjustified discriminatory barriers in this sphere," he said.
"We categorically oppose the lack of an equal competition for all market players, which hampers our companies' activities."
