Russia wants changes to US uranium agreement - papers

MOSCOW, May 19 (Reuters) Russia wants changes to agreements with the United States that give uranium enricher USEC Inc. the right to buy uranium recovered from dismantled Soviet nuclear weapons, Russian media said today.

Under the agreements, signed in 1993 and 1994, highly enriched uranium, extracted from Russian warheads, is converted into low-enriched uranium, which is purchased by US company USEC for use in commercial power plants.

But Russian officials feel the price they get for the fuel is too low and some officials even want to stop selling fuel through USEC, the Vedomosti daily reported, citing sources in the Russian nuclear industry.

Russia would like to sell fuel directly to US customers, one source told the paper.

The Kommersant daily said Russia wants the changes after uranium prices soared over recent months.

Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Russia's Atomic Energy Agency, began a visit to the United States today where he will hold talks with U.S. companies and senior officials, his spokesman said. He declined to comment on the reports.

A spokeswoman for the Bethesda, Maryland-based USEC could not be immediately reached for comment.

Relations between Moscow and Washington are now close to the chilliest they have been since the collapse of the Soviet Union, with differences over how to deal with Iran, the war in Iraq and views on Russian domestic policy.

The United States and Russia agreed in 1993 to convert 500 tonnes of highly enriched uranium (HEU) into low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. The following year USEC, then a state company, and Russia's Techsnabexport signed a contract.

Under the programme, 10,748 nuclear warheads had been eliminated as of April 2006, USEC said on its Web site, www.usec.com.

USEC said 269 tonnes of weapons grade uranium had been converted into 7,868 tonnes of low enriched power plant uranium.

During his trip to the United States, Kiriyenko will also meet Nils Diaz, head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Energy Secretary Sam Bodman and National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley.

REUTERS SHB SSC1531