Russia agreed on Friday to supply more low-enriched uranium to South Africa's only nuclear power station, a contract that will give Russia's uranium trader nearly half of Africa's biggest market for enrichment services.
By Tom Lamar
The deal, which extends an earlier agreement from the 1990s, was signed after Kremlin talks between South African President Jacob Zuma and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.
Addressing a news conference in the Kremlin after talks with Zuma, Medvdev said the deal was 'just a beginning' in developing the immature relations between the two countries.
Russia, possessing the world's biggest uranium-enrichment capacities, is planning to set up the world's first nuclear fuel reserve to ensure uninterrupted supplies for the world's power reactors.
Under the deal Russia's state uranium trader Techsnabexport will supply uranium enrichment services to companies such as Westinghouse Electric, owned by Japan's Toshiba Corp, for delivery to the Koeberg nuclear power plant.
"Our share of the market in South Africa will rise," Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom, told reporters in the Kremlin.
Deliveries under the contract will begin in 2011 and last until 2017-2018.