Top lawmakers on the U.S. Senate Energy Committee told President Bush Wednesday they would oppose a deal allowing Russia to sell more highly enriched uranium as fuel to U.S. nuclear power plants.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he will urge Bush at this weekend's rich nations' meeting in St. Petersburg to alter two supply agreements in order for Russia to ship more enriched uranium to the United States.
Russia signed agreements with the United States in 1992 that stipulate that no additional Russian nuclear fuel supplies beyond those derived from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons will be delivered to U.S. utilities with nuclear reactors.
Complications
Russia already supplies about half the enriched uranium used by U.S. nuclear power plants and the lawmakers said allowing Russia to "dump" more of the fuel in the U.S. market could scuttle construction of two planned American uranium enrichment facilities.
Republican Pete Domenici, who chairs the Senate's energy committee, and Jeff Bingaman, the top Democrat on the panel, said they are against changing the supply agreements.
"Any changes proposed in either agreement would have the potential of making the U.S. more dependent on foreign sources of nuclear fuel at a time when domestic sources are being developed," they said in a letter to Bush.
"Additionally, Russian access to the U.S. market at this time is likely to result in market destabilization potentially jeopardizing resurgence of the nuclear-related industry," the lawmakers warned.
G-8 summit
A senior Bush administration official at a briefing on the G8 meeting Tuesday declined to comment on what nuclear issues may be agreed to between the United States and Russia at the summit.
The two U.S. uranium enrichment facilities have a combined price tag of $3.2 billion and would be located in New Mexico, which Domenici and Bingaman both represent, and in Ohio.
Ohio's two Republican senators, Mike DeWine and George Voinovich, also signed the letter against allowing in more Russian enriched uranium.
By 2013, the two facilities could provide half of the enriched uranium required by U.S. nuclear power reactors, the lawmakers said.
The senators suggested that the U.S. government examine the options for uranium fuel supplies after 2013.
Putin doesn't want to wait that long. In answers to e-mailed questions posted on the Kremlin's Web site, Putin said he was against U.S. "discriminatory" restrictions on the sale of Russian nuclear fuel and will raise the issue with Bush when they meet at the G8.
"The only thing we want is equal competition on external markets, including the American market," Putin said.
