Ukraine wants to join Russia and Kazakhstan in creating a low-enriched uranium reserve center in Russia's Angarsk, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said in an interview with the country's Inter TV channel on Sunday.
Yanukovych said Ukraine was in talks with Russia and Kazakhstan, who are partners in the project, on joint construction of the facility.
Russia proposed in 2007 the creation of a nuclear center with LEU reserves in Angarsk, 117 km (73 miles) away from Lake Baikal, to enable countries including Iran to develop civilian nuclear power without having to enrich their own uranium.
Russia has pledged to give access to the reserves "to any IAEA member country that honors its non-proliferation commitments."
Yanukovych said Ukraine had also proposed Russia and Kazakhstan to jointly build a nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
"It is difficult for Ukraine to build it alone," he said, adding "we are interested to be a shareholder and co-owner of such a plant, which will in the future supply nuclear fuel not only to Ukraine's nuclear reactors, but also to Europe," he said.
Ukraine witnessed one of the world's worst man-made disasters at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 26, 1986 when a plume of radioactive fallout was released into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area, including the western Soviet Union and most of Europe.
KIEV, June 13 (RIA Novosti)
