OUTSIDE VIEW: RUSSIA-ARMENIA URANIUM PACT
By Sergei Golubchikov
United Press International
April 24 2008
MOSCOW, April 23 (UPI) — Russia and Armenia signed a treaty Tuesday
in Yerevan to set up a joint venture for the exploration and mining
of uranium and other minerals in Armenia. A joint company is being
established on parity lines and will be registered within the next
three months.
The treaty was signed by Vadim Zhivov, general director of the
Atomredmetzoloto uranium holding, and Armenian Environmental Protection
Minister Aram Arutyunyan. ARMZ manages all of Russia’s uranium assets
and runs some projects in Kazakhstan.
AMRZ ranks second in the world for uranium reserves. This is the
result of the nuclear industry’s restructuring, and in particular
the pooling of its core plants under one umbrella.
With the focus on nuclear power, Russia is now planning its uranium
future carefully to warrant the successful development of its nuclear
industry.
The collapse of the Soviet Union has left Russia high and dry, with
many well-researched fields outside its boundaries, mainly in Central
Asia (Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan).
For now, Russia has only one uranium-containing deposit, in the Chita
Region, with its Streltsovsky mining and chemical plant. Its total
reserves are estimated at 150,000 metric tons of ore. Other fields
in Eastern Siberia have a further 70,000 metric tons of explored raw
materials. Altogether, the proven reserves amount to 615,000 metric
tons. This figure also includes 344,000 metric tons from Elkon,
the largest recently explored Russian field located in the north
of Yakutia-Sakha.
Russia’s uranium-bearing provinces present a challenge for
developers. The largest of them — the Aldanskoye deposit — can be
developed only by sinking. The ore occurs at a depth of 300 meters,
and mining is unprofitable.
During authoritarian times that problem did not exist: northern uranium
was obtained by the free labor of prisoners, including political
ones. In Chukotka, for example, they supplied the material for the
first atomic bombs. As prison camps closed down, uranium mining in
the northern latitudes stopped.
Now a search is on for an economically feasible way of opening up the
mothballed mines. Uranium prices are increasing throughout the world;
over the past three years they have doubled, and not surprisingly. One
cubic centimeter of uranium is equivalent to 60,000 liters of gasoline,
110 to 160 metric tons of coal, or 60,000 cubic meters of natural gas.
Being highly concentrated, this fuel can be easily and cheaply
transported any distance. Its price factored in as part of generated
power is comparatively small. So even a massive rise in uranium fuel
prices has little effect on nuclear power costs. Since 1997 they have
gone up by just 7 percent.
With current uranium production at 3,400 metric tons a year, its
reserves will last for half a century. How will Russia’s nuclear
industry fare once the explored reserves run out? There are two
options. The first is to look for an alternative way of supplying
fuel for the nuclear industry. One is to use so-called fast reactors
(fast-breeder reactors).
Their advantages are moderate power intensity and low fuel
consumption. Fast reactors can use uranium from poor fields, with a
low degree of enrichment.
Another way is to recycle spent fuel, namely to obtain plutonium fuel
separated from the uranium extracted from nuclear reactors.
Russia has cornered a sizeable part of the world’s future uranium
market, and its share could grow as new fields are tapped in Eastern
Siberia.
It can also receive supplies from other countries — ones that have
no nuclear industry of their own or lack enriching technologies.
Russia already owns 49 percent of the Russian-Kazakh Zarechnoye Co.,
which is developing a field of 19,000 metric tons of uranium.
In 2007 Australia became one of Russia’s uranium partners. It boasts
the world’s largest uranium deposits. The leaders of the two countries,
Vladimir Putin and John Howard, signed an agreement in Sydney, under
which Russia will receive $1 million worth of raw Australian uranium
per year for its nuclear needs. The document will come into effect
once the two parliaments ratify it.
Mongolia is also going to play an important role. Theoretically,
its natural uranium resources put the country at the cutting edge of
the world market, and just need to be explored.
Russia’s potential uranium reserves (natural and weapons-grade)
will enable it to claim 45 percent of the world’s uranium enrichment
services market by 2030 and 20 percent to 25 percent of the nuclear
plant construction market.
Given closed nuclear cycle technologies (fast-breeder reactors), these
resources will be able to meet global power needs for 1,000 years.
—
(Sergei Golubchikov is an associate professor at Russian State
Social University. This article was printed with permission from RIA
Novosti. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s and
do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.)