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"The U.S. and Russian governments have reached a breakthrough in a long-stalled agreement to dispose of huge amounts of their plutonium from nuclear weapons, officials said Thursday. This Story * Obama's policies leave Czechs still hoping * Russia backs Iran sanctions -- with limits * Obama, Medvedev sign treaty to reduce nuclear weapons * In Russia, unease over arms deal * Special report: Obama's trips abroad * For deterrent, U.S. looks to conventional warheads * Obama signs arms pact in Prague: 2010 photos * Obama in Prague: Photos from his 2009 trip * U.S., Russia reach deal on disposing of plutonium View All Items in This Story View Only Top Items in This Story The new protocol will be signed Monday, shortly before President Obama opens a summit in Washington on keeping nuclear material out of the hands of terrorists, officials said. More than 40 heads of state are expected at the summit. The new protocol amends an agreement signed by then-Vice President Al Gore and the Russian leadership in 2000 under which the two countries pledged to get rid of 34 tons of plutonium each. The material came from weapons that had been decommissioned. The total 68 tons would be enough for 17,000 nuclear bombs, officials said. "

In the wake of a French investigation into reports that nuclear waste is sent from French plants to Siberia, news has emerged that Germany has a long tradition of shipping toxic waste to Russia. The German anti-nuclear group "Ausgestrahlt" said that since 1996, Germany's only uranium enrichment plant in Gronau has shipped about 22,000 tons of uranium hexafluoride, which is a compound used in the uranium enrichment process, to Russia. "Ausgestrahlt" reported on Wednesday that only 10 percent of that was returned to Germany as enriched uranium. The anti-nuclear activists said the remaining 90 percent was stored in Siberia, outdoors and in rusting containers. Uranium hexafluoride is highly toxic and corrosive to most metals.

In the wake of a French investigation into reports that nuclear waste is sent from French plants to Siberia, news has emerged that Germany has a long tradition of shipping toxic waste to Russia. The German anti-nuclear group "Ausgestrahlt" said that since 1996, Germany's only uranium enrichment plant in Gronau has shipped about 22,000 tons of uranium hexafluoride, which is a compound used in the uranium enrichment process, to Russia. "Ausgestrahlt" reported on Wednesday that only 10 percent of that was returned to Germany as enriched uranium. The anti-nuclear activists said the remaining 90 percent was stored in Siberia, outdoors and in rusting containers. Uranium hexafluoride is highly toxic and corrosive to most metals.

Waste from French power stations was being deposited in the open air in Russia, French newspaper Liberation said on Monday. The paper said 13 percent of French radioactive waste produced by power group EDF could be found in the open air in a town in Siberia to which access is forbidden. The paper said it based its information on an investigation due to be broadcast on TV channel Arte on Tuesday. An EDF spokeswoman declined to confirm the 13 percent figure, or that waste was stored in the open air, but confirmed EDF sends nuclear waste to Russia.

Waste from French power stations was being deposited in the open air in Russia, French newspaper Liberation said on Monday. The paper said 13 percent of French radioactive waste produced by power group EDF could be found in the open air in a town in Siberia to which access is forbidden. The paper said it based its information on an investigation due to be broadcast on TV channel Arte on Tuesday. An EDF spokeswoman declined to confirm the 13 percent figure, or that waste was stored in the open air, but confirmed EDF sends nuclear waste to Russia.

The new U.S. missile shield plans present no risks for Russia, and favorable conditions are now emerging for bilateral dialogue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. U.S. President Barack Obama in September scrapped plans to deploy a radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland, due to a re-assessment of the threat from Iran. Moscow fiercely opposed the plans as a national security threat. "The new plan put forward by the Obama administration to replace the project to deploy the Third Missile Defense Site offers good conditions for dialogue, and according to our assessments, does not pose the risks that were generated by the Third Missile Defense Site project," Lavrov said. He added that the two countries would soon hold talks on missile defense. According to the Obama administration's new plan, land-based missile-defense shields will not be implemented before 2015. Sea-based defenses will be operating in the Mediterranean up to 2015.

The new U.S. missile shield plans present no risks for Russia, and favorable conditions are now emerging for bilateral dialogue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. U.S. President Barack Obama in September scrapped plans to deploy a radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland, due to a re-assessment of the threat from Iran. Moscow fiercely opposed the plans as a national security threat. "The new plan put forward by the Obama administration to replace the project to deploy the Third Missile Defense Site offers good conditions for dialogue, and according to our assessments, does not pose the risks that were generated by the Third Missile Defense Site project," Lavrov said. He added that the two countries would soon hold talks on missile defense. According to the Obama administration's new plan, land-based missile-defense shields will not be implemented before 2015. Sea-based defenses will be operating in the Mediterranean up to 2015.

n seeking to reduce Russia's greenhouse gas emissions, energy saving programs are more important than increased reliance on nuclear power, a World Wildlife Fund Russia official said on Tuesday. Commenting on widespread calls to boost the role of nuclear power, Alexei Kokorin, who heads WWF Russia's Climate and Energy program, said: "This point of view is certainly on the rise." He said that for many countries, including France, Armenia, Finland and Bulgaria, nuclear power may prove the best option for cutting emissions, but that in Russia's case "cheaper options need to be used." "I know that in Russia, the main way to cut emissions is energy saving and energy efficiency", he said, and highlighted the findings of an International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook report published earlier this month.

n seeking to reduce Russia's greenhouse gas emissions, energy saving programs are more important than increased reliance on nuclear power, a World Wildlife Fund Russia official said on Tuesday. Commenting on widespread calls to boost the role of nuclear power, Alexei Kokorin, who heads WWF Russia's Climate and Energy program, said: "This point of view is certainly on the rise." He said that for many countries, including France, Armenia, Finland and Bulgaria, nuclear power may prove the best option for cutting emissions, but that in Russia's case "cheaper options need to be used." "I know that in Russia, the main way to cut emissions is energy saving and energy efficiency", he said, and highlighted the findings of an International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook report published earlier this month.

"Russian scientist Igor Sutyagin, who was serving 15 years following a wrongful conviction on espionage charges, was Friday delivered together with three other convicted spies to Vienna and exchanged, in what appears to be the biggest US-Russian "spy swap" since the Cold War, for ten Russian individuals who have admitted earlier in New York to have been acting as agents of the Russian Federation. Maria Kaminskaya, 09/07-2010 Information that Sutyagin, an innocent man who was imprisoned at the height of what became known as "spymania" in Russia, will be part of an exchange by which Russia will repatriate ten US-based agents has earlier been confirmed by his lawyer Anna Stavitskaya. His release became joyful news for Bellona, which is all too familiar with the dismal situation with human rights and the workings of the justice system in Russia, though the fact that Sutyagin was forced to sign a confession of guilt in order to walk free was another testimony that little has changed for the better."

In the course of summer, Russia removed another 46 strontium-fuelled lighthouses from the coast of the White Sea and the Barents and Kara Seas. With Norwegian project support, Russia has now removed 180 radioactive lighthouses between Murmansk and the Novaya Zemlya and replaced them with solar cell installations. Strontium-fuelled lighthouse (Fylkesmannen.no)The 46 lighthouses were all sent to the VNIITFA institute in Moscow, Rosbaltnord.ru reports with reference to RIA Novosti. Another 11 lighthouses will be brought from the island of Vaigach to Moscow next summer.

President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday that Russia must upgrade its nuclear deterrent and fully supply the Armed Forces with modern weaponry by 2020. He said Russia would make the modernization of its nuclear deterrent and Armed Forces a priority in light of the recent military conflict with Georgia. Moscow launched a five-day military operation "to force Georgia to peace" in response to an attack by Georgian forces on South Ossetia on August 8.

Russia is arguing that the current troubles in Georgia shouldn't affect a deal it has struck to buy Australian uranium. Conservationists are urging the federal government to reconsider the deal, struck by the former Howard government last year, which allows Russia to buy Australian uranium for civilian purposes under strict safeguards.

MOSCOW, June 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russian nuclear power agency Rosatom dismissed on Monday rumors circulating of a radioactive leak from two plants in northwest and south Russia. Bogus e-mail messages on June 15 said that there had been alleged radioactive leaks at the Leningrad nuclear power station, in northwest Russia, and the Volgodonsk nuclear power plant, in the south of the country, a spokesman for the company said.

The Nikkei Report, Tokyo, reports that Russia has announced it will build 26 new nuclear reactors with electricity generation capacities of 1,000-1,200 MWe each by 2030. Assuming the Russian pricing model, in constant dollars, prevails over the next two decades, the new build has a staggering cost of $78-to-$104 billion. The Japanese newspaper said that although Russia is encountering increasing financial difficulties, it is putting nuclear power at the center of its energy policy. Success will depend in part on the Russian rouble being worth more than a plugged nickel when the current world financial crisis turns around. Russia plans to pay for its domestic new build in part with earnings from export of its nuclear reactors in deals such as the one it inked with India last December.

"Vienna - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Russia set up the world's first nuclear fuel reserve Monday to ensure uninterrupted supplies for the world's power reactors. The idea for a fuel bank was initiated by the IAEA in order to give countries an alternative to developing their own uranium enrichment technology, like Iran has done. "With our effort, we made the world a little better," said Sergei Kirienko, the head of Russia's nuclear corporation ROSATOM in Vienna, after signing the agreement with IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano. The reserve is intended as an insurance mechanism for countries whose foreign supply of nuclear fuel is interrupted. In such a case, the IAEA would provide the nuclear material, which is to be made and stored at Angarsk in Siberia. The recipient country would pay current market prices for the low-enriched uranium. Russia would have 30 per cent of the target of one reactor load ready by the end of the year, Kirienko said. Developing countries have expressed scepticism about the fuel bank, as they fear that such mechanisms might indirectly prevent them from acquiring peaceful nuclear technology."

"The Messenger reported Wednesday that Russian Foreign Ministry Andrei Nesterenko dismissed Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's allegation as an "ungrounded accusation," further criticizing the Georgian administration for "almost every day" making statements about "all kinds of sins committed by Russia." Nesterenko added: "As for the allegations that the Russian Federation has anything to do with the nuclear materials impounded by the Georgian police in March, we want to state that these statements are ungrounded and are based only on words. "We would like to underline that officials in Tbilisi have no proof that Russia or any other state is linked with this incident. This makes us think that in this case we are dealing not with facts but a badly planned provocation."

"Defense Secretary Robert Gates said a treaty with Russia to cut long-range nuclear weapons on both sides will give the U.S. a clearer picture of its former Cold War adversary's arsenal. The treaty allows for new verification standards, including access to each other's warheads for the first time, as Russia grows more reliant on nuclear forces for its defense, Gates told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington today. The U.S. and Russia hold 90 percent of the world's nuclear weapons. "This treaty reduces the strategic nuclear forces of our two nations in a manner that strengthens the strategic stability of our relationship and protects the security of the American people and our allies," Gates said in the first hearing since President Barack Obama submitted the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty to the Senate last week for ratification. "I am confident that it is the right agreement for today and for the future." "

"Russia is ready to invest $1 billion in uranium exploration in Namibia, Russia's state nuclear firm said on Thursday as it seeks to compete for projects with global miner Rio Tinto in the African country. "We're ready to start investing already this year," the head of state corporation Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, told journalists. Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba was visiting Moscow to meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Kiriyenko said the uranium extracted from Namibia could be used for a nuclear power plant Russia was building in Turkey."

Bangladesh and Russia signed a framework agreement for Russian cooperation for Bangladesh's first nuclear plant. Bangladesh aims to produce at least 2,000 megawatts of electricity by 2020 from two units of the proposed Rooppur plant and also to have nuclear energy account for 10 percent of its total power generation by that time, Bangladeshi state news agency BSS reports. The agreement, signed Friday in Russia, calls for the transfer of materials, technologies, equipment and services to implement joint programs in the field of the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Environmentalists from the international pressure group Greenpeace are trumpeting their biggest success in years after German-Dutch company URENCO announced on Monday that it is ending the practice of sending spent nuclear fuel to Russia for reprocessing and storage. Radioactive loads on board foreign ships had been arriving at the port of St. Petersburg every month for a decade to be sent by rail to factories in Siberia and the Urals. Environmentalists feared that transporting such loads through the city presented a major threat to public health and environmental security. In 1999, they failed in their attempts to have the importing of spent nuclear fuel from abroad into Russia banned. In December 2000, the State Duma voted overwhelmingly to adopt the practice of importing irradiated fuel from other countries.

Environmentalists from the international pressure group Greenpeace are trumpeting their biggest success in years after German-Dutch company URENCO announced on Monday that it is ending the practice of sending spent nuclear fuel to Russia for reprocessing and storage. Radioactive loads on board foreign ships had been arriving at the port of St. Petersburg every month for a decade to be sent by rail to factories in Siberia and the Urals. Environmentalists feared that transporting such loads through the city presented a major threat to public health and environmental security. In 1999, they failed in their attempts to have the importing of spent nuclear fuel from abroad into Russia banned. In December 2000, the State Duma voted overwhelmingly to adopt the practice of importing irradiated fuel from other countries.

Customs officials in far eastern Russia said Thursday they had stopped almost 50 secondhand cars shipped for sale from Japan that showed excessive radiation levels. A sign with the nuclear hazard symbol stands in front of cars from Japan in the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok on April 14. Customs officials in far eastern Russia said they had stopped almost 50 secondhand cars shipped for sale from Japan that showed excessive radiation levels. Customs officials stopped 49 cars with radiation levels up to six times above normal, while some vehicles had traces of the radioactive isotopes caesium-127 and uranium-238, said Roman Famin, who heads the regional customs' radiation monitoring department. The radioactive cars started arriving at the Vladivostok port 10 days ago, but the government consumer watchdog has not made a decision on what to do with the contaminated cars, Famin said at a briefing.

"Russia and Kazakhstan are on the brink of signing a number of documents on cooperation in the nuclear sphere, the head of the Russian atomic energy company Rosatom said on Saturday. Sergei Kiriyenko said while he was in Kazakhstan on Thursday, cooperation in the nuclear sphere was discussed between Russia and Kazakhstan. "A wide range of documents are on the deciding stage and the 'last leg' of these documents will be finished in a short period of time," Kirieyenko said at the sidelines of the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg."

Russia will help Venezuela build its first nuclear reactor in the northwestern province of Zulia, President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday. Chavez had announced on Friday that Venezuela was in talks with Russia on nuclear energy cooperation, and the issue is likely to be discussed during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit later this month. "A nuclear reactor, to produce energy for peaceful purposes, will soon be built in Estado Zulia and named in honor of the Venezuelan scientist of the last century Humberto Fernandez Moran," Chavez told supporters in Maracaibo, the capital of Zulia state.