Great Britain to allocate Russia $30 mln on utilization of used nuclear fuel

In 2004 Great Britain intends to allocate $30 mln on programs of utilization and storage of used nuclear fuel (UNF) in Russia, First Secretary of the British Embassy in Moscow Simon Evans said.

"For the most part the allocated means will be spent on the joint Russo-British programs, which are being implemented in Russia's North-West," Mr. Evans noted.

According to him, the particular joint programs are: the utilization of nuclear submarines at the naval base in Severodvinsk, the construction of the new facility for UNF storage in the Murmansk region and the construction of the shielding facilities at the UNF storage, which belongs to the naval base on the Andreyevsk Bay.

"The financial means are allocated within the framework of the program of Russo-British cooperation on elimination of chemical and nuclear weapons. In the next 10 years Great Britain intends to allocate for this purpose approximately $750 mln," Mr. Evans disclosed.

Simon Evans reminded that the G8 leaders agreed at the 2002 Kananaskis summit to allocate in the course of 10 years $20 bln on the elimination of nuclear, bacteriological and chemical weapons of mass destruction, produced by the former Soviet Union and presently kept in Russia and the CIS countries.