OREANDA-NEWS. January 21, 2007. In June 2008 Russia will take away highly enriched uranium from Sofia Nuclear Physics Institute and will help the institute to switch to low-enriched fuel, the head of Rosatom Sergey Kiriyenko told journalists in Sofia on Jan 18.

“Today, we are signing an intergovernmental agreement that Russia will replace the research reactor of the Academy of Sciences of Bulgaria, the reactor built by Russian specialists, because it uses highly enriched uranium,” Kiriyenko said.

Kiriyenko explained to the journalists that highly enriched uranium could be used for production of weapons and reminded them that Russia and the United States had RERTR (Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors) program for replacement of research reactors using highly enriched uranium by safe civil reactors.

“According to the agreement, in June 2008 we will take away the highly enriched uranium, will replace the reactor so it can work on low-enriched uranium and will supply the new reactor with necessary fuel,” Kiriyenko said.