February 27, 2006

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Ukraine Will Not Enrich Uranium: PM
Turkish Press, MI
February 24, 2006

KIEV - Ukrainian Prime Minister Yury Yekhanurov on Friday said that his country did not plan to enrich uranium in spite of earlier suggestions that it might do so.

"Ukraine does not intend to enrich uranium," the Interfax news agency quoted Yekhanurov as saying.

With the statement, the premier appeared to backtrack on comments made two weeks ago, when he said that the former nuclear power planned to produce its own nuclear fuel within a dozen years.

Those remarks sparked concerns from the United States, which is eager to support Ukraine's new pro-Western authorities in their goal of shedding Russia's traditional influence, but also keen to stem nuclear proliferation in the region.

Enriched uranium is needed to run nuclear power stations but, depending on the level of purification, can also be used as the explosive core of a nuclear bomb.

Ukrainian authorities have said their country currently buys all nuclear fuel for its four nuclear power stations from Russia, a country on which it is also dependent for much of its annual gas and oil needs.

President Viktor Yushchenko, the "orange revolution" leader who assumed power last year vowing to pull Ukraine away from Moscow's influence, has made diversifying the nation's energy supplies one of the main priorities of his administration.

Ukraine was one of the world's top nuclear powers when it became independent following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Kiev agreed to give up its nuclear weapons and capacities in 1994 in exchange for security guarantees from the world's nuclear powers.

The nation was also the site of the world's worst nuclear accident at the Chernobyl power plant in 1986.