OREANDA-NEWS. May 14, 2009. Russia and Toshiba are considering the possibility of building a low enriched uranium storage facility in Japan, Director General of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation Sergey Kiriyenko said during a press-conference in Tokyo.

“We have drafted an agreement and today we are going to announce its signing: this is an agreement for establishment of a joint venture for studying the possibilities of forming a low enriched uranium storage facility in the territory of Japan,” Kiriyenko said during a press-conference in Tokyo.

He pointed out that the singing of the Russian-Japanese inter-government agreement for cooperation in the field of peaceful use of nuclear energy would pave the way for lots of other agreements.

“I, first of all, mean the supply of low enriched uranium for Japanese nuclear power plants: here we have 10-year contracts worth several billions of US dollars,” Kiriyenko said.

One more possible direction is processing of recoverable uranium: this is quite a big contract worth over USD 500mln.

Russia is also negotiating joint uranium prospecting and mining projects with Mitsui, Marubeni and a whole number of other Japanese companies.

“We have invited them to cooperate in the field of natural uranium prospecting and mining in Russia, more specifically, in Southern Yakutia, as well as in third countries, for example, in Mongolia,” Kiriyenko said.