MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. A nuclear fuel cycle committee established at Rosatom, effectively a uranium council, will define the strategy and tactics for developing a two-component nuclear energy system, Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev said.

"The expansion of the product portfolio, the creation of fourth-generation energy systems independent of the raw material base, natural uranium, and large-scale construction of power units both domestically and abroad will require new approaches to managing the entire nuclear fuel cycle of a two-component nuclear energy system with thermal and fast neutron reactors. To coordinate this work, a nuclear fuel cycle committee has been established. It includes virtually all senior executives of the state corporation. The committee will serve as a kind of uranium council that will determine the strategy and tactics in this key area. The goal is to ensure a reliable and efficient supply of fuel for the growing nuclear generation sector both within the country and for projects, including those in distant locations, with our foreign partners," the Rosatom chief said in a statement.

To this end, according to Likhachev, the corporation plans to expand enrichment, fuel fabrication, and spent nuclear fuel reprocessing capacities, as well as to develop and implement a national uranium program aimed at reducing specific consumption of natural uranium through closed fuel cycle technologies, while simultaneously expanding the resource base to increase the share of nuclear generation.

"The logical question is whether there will be enough uranium for everyone, and whether nuclear generation could face a shortage. Rosatom has an answer, and that answer is no. Neither we nor our partners face a uranium shortage. We are secured with our own mineral resource base for decades ahead and hold leading positions in the global uranium market," Likhachev emphasized.