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Russia set to continue nuclear energy security cooperation with US — Russian atomic agency

Rosatom made this statement to comment on a report by The Boston Globe that Moscow allegedly refused to continue cooperation with Washington in nuclear energy security

MOSCOW, January 22. /TASS/. Russia is not giving up nuclear energy security cooperation with the United States, the Russian civilian nuclear energy corporation Rosatom said on Thursday.

Rosatom made this statement to comment on a report by The Boston Globe that Moscow had allegedly refused to continue cooperation with Washington in nuclear energy security.

“Cooperation between Russia and the United States in this field will continue,” Rosatom said in a statement.

“Russia and the United States bear special responsibility for ensuring the security and safety of nuclear materials, preventing them from falling into the hands of terrorists, as well as reliable physical protection,” a Rosatom spokesman said.

As part of cooperation between Russia and the United States under the Nunn-Lugar program stipulating joint efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear materials, highly-enriched-uranium fresh and spent nuclear fuel has returned to Russia from the research reactors of 14 countries, thus eliminating the risk of the unauthorized use of these materials, including a potential terrorist threat.

A total of 2.136 kg of highly-enriched nuclear fuel sufficient for producing about 85 nuclear warheads has been returned to Russia since 2002.

“This cooperation will be continued: Russia plans to return highly-enriched fresh and spent fuel from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Poland,” Rosatom said.