MOSCOW, May 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Techsnabexport and three U.S. companies affiliated with the FuelCo Group signed on Tuesday three long-term low-enriched uranium supply contracts.
"The contracts are worth $1 billion," said Sergei Kiriyenko, head of the Rosatom state-controlled nuclear corporation.
Under the contracts, enriched uranium will be supplied directly to the U.S. companies from 2014 through 2020.
Kiriyenko also said Russia was ready to discuss the establishment of a low-enriched uranium storage facility in the U.S. to ensure long-term supplies to consumers.
He added that the U.S. companies were interested in signing a relevant agreement and that talks would begin without delay.
Earlier this month, Russia and the United States signed an agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation.
Russia and the U.S. also cooperate in the nuclear sphere on the HEU-LEU project. The HEU-LEU contract, also known as the Megatons to Megawatts agreement, was signed in February 1993 and expires in 2013.
It aims to convert 500 metric tons of highly-enriched uranium (HEU), the equivalent of approximately 20,000 nuclear warheads, from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons into low-enriched uranium (LEU), which is then converted into nuclear fuel for use in U.S. commercial reactors.
In April, Techsnabexport shipped the first batch of low-enriched uranium to the United States under a bilateral agreement.
Techsnabexport, a Russian company that exports goods and services produced by the nuclear power sector, is integrated into Atomenergoprom.
