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The former head of Kazatomprom, Kazakhstan's state-run nuclear energy company, was accused of embezzling state shares in uranium deposits, including one co- owned by Canada's Uranium One Inc. Uranium One fell the most in almost nine years on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Mukhtar Dzhakishev, who was arrested earlier this week, abused his position as Kazatomprom chief and embezzled state shares in "large uranium deposits" by "transferring" them to offshore companies, Kazakhstan's National Security Committee said today on its Web site. On Dzhakishev's orders, Kazatomprom in 2005 sold a 30 percent stake in TOO Kyzylkum, a joint venture with Uranium One's UrAsia London Limited unit, for 15.6 million tenge (about $103,000), the committee said. "Proof of illegal transfers of mining rights for other deposits was also uncovered," it said. Dzhakishev's mobile phone was not in service when called by Bloomberg News. Kazatomprom spokesman Sergei Nasyrov declined to comment on the report.

Russia and Japan will sign an agreement on peaceful uses of nuclear energy on May 12 during Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to Tokyo. Putin and his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso will also discuss North Korea and their territorial dispute, though Russia isn't prepared to cede four Kuril Islands claimed by Japan, Yury Ushakov, Putin's deputy chief of staff, told reporters in Moscow today. "We're not ceding anything, but we may be ready to some degree to discuss hypothetical situations," Ushakov said. "That's all. We're not ready to give the islands away." Russia favors a "calm, constructive" dialogue on the Kurils without "inflated expectations and disappointments," he said.

Toshiba Corp., Japan's largest supplier of reactors, will spend 10 billion yen ($103 million) buying a nuclear-fuel manufacturer to help compete with global rivals such as Areva SA for new atomic power plants. Toshiba subsidiary Westinghouse Electric Co. agreed to buy a 52 percent stake in Nuclear Fuel Industries Ltd. from Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. and Furukawa Electric Co., Toshiba said in a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange today. It plans to complete the purchase in May, it said. Better access to fuel may help Toshiba win orders as competition with France's Areva and an alliance between Hitachi Ltd. and General Electric Co. intensifies. Nuclear power generation is set to increase as developing countries led by China and India build more reactors to meet demand and cut carbon emissions blamed for global warming.

Toshiba Corp., Japan's largest supplier of reactors, is in talks to buy nuclear-fuel rod assemblies from Kazakhstan after opening a new uranium mine in the central Asian nation. Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida, speaking in Almaty, the country's financial center, declined to say when an agreement may be signed or how much it may be worth. Kazakhstan's state-owned Kazatomprom, Canadian miner Uranium One Inc., Toshiba and a group of Japanese companies led by Tokyo Electric Power Co. yesterday opened a mine in southern Kazakhstan as the country seeks to supply about a third of Japanese uranium demand by 2014. The partners have invested $490 million in the TOO Kyzylkum joint venture, which aims to produce 3,000 metric tons of uranium from the mine in 2014.

South Africa is completing feasibility studies into nuclear fuel production processes and now plans to develop experimental sites, an official at state- owned Nuclear Energy Corp. of SA, or Necsa, said. "We are finishing a range of feasibility studies into aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle," Van Zyl de Villiers, general manager of research and development at Pretoria-based Necsa, said in an interview in Johannesburg today. "The next step for us will be to establish experimental infrastructure." South Africa plans to add to its only existing nuclear plant, Koeberg, to overcome electricity shortages and reduce the country's dependence on coal. While power utility Eskom Holdings Ltd. this year canceled a plan to build the country's second nuclear plant, citing costs, the government said it remained committed to nuclear power.

McDermott International Inc.'s Babcock & Wilcox unit agreed to pay $52.5 million to settle a lawsuit over claims that two Pennsylvania nuclear processing plants caused personal injuries and property damage. The settlement, pending court approval, would end a lawsuit that began in 1994 and had been delayed for years by Babcock & Wilcox's filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2000. A trial set for January was postponed while the parties pursued settlement negotiations, according to court papers filed yesterday. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Pittsburgh, contended that Babcock & Wilcox plants in Apollo and Parks Township, Pennsylvania, exposed people to toxic levels of radiation. BP Plc's Atlantic Richfield, which had also been sued, settled in 2008 for $27.5 million. The Babcock & Wilcox settlement was filed yesterday.

Toshiba Corp., Japan's largest supplier of reactors, plans to buy a controlling stake in a nuclear fuel supplier to help compete with global rivals for new atomic power plants, officials said. Toshiba's Westinghouse Electric Co. seeks to buy more than 50 percent of Nuclear Fuel Industries Ltd. from Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. and Furukawa Electric Co., said two officials close to the negotiations who declined to be named before an announcement. Yuichiro Horiba, a spokesman at Osaka- based Sumitomo Electric confirmed the talks and said the companies have yet to reach a decision.

Denison Mines Corp., a Canadian uranium producer, agreed to sell a 19.9 percent stake in the company to Korea Electric Power Corp. for C$75.4 million ($62.1 million) and supply the utility with uranium until 2015. Korea Electric will buy about 58 million Denison shares for C$1.30 each, equal to yesterday's closing price, Denison said in a statement. The agreement requires the Toronto-based mining company to sell as much as 690,000 pounds of enriched uranium a year to the state-controlled utility starting in 2010.

Uranium slid 1.8 percent for the second straight week as both demand and supply tumbled by half and trading volumes diminished. Uranium-oxide concentrate for immediate delivery fell 75 cents to $40.50 a pound, Denver-based pricing service TradeTech LLC said in a report yesterday. Weekly supply declined to about 2.5 million pounds, while demand was more than 3 million pounds. Two transactions for a total of 350,000 pounds took place last week, TradeTech said.