13/09/2013 16:23
ANPP to return flawed nuclear fuel to manufacturer
At the government session today, Armenian Nuclear Power Plant CJSC received a nuclear material export license. The draft decision was submitted by Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsisian. He said the matter concerns 7 cases of fresh nuclear fuel which have been kept at Armenian Nuclear Power Plant for quite a long time.
According to the minister, the nuclear fuel is unusable because of technical flaws.
“We have for several years tried to return it to the plant, but they didn’t agree. Now they agreed and said that we may return the fuel to the manufacturing plant at a certain price. 0.7% enriched uranium is currently sold at $40-50, and we reached an agreement to sell it at $5,000 a kilogram,” the minister said.
He said that nuclear fuel will be transported by plane to Armenia in two days, and the abovementioned flawed fuel will be sent back by the same plane.
The cases with flawed nuclear fuel were imported into Armenia in 1977-1987.