*** Ukraine Wants To Produce Own Nuclear Fuel ***
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By-Maria Danilova
The Associated Press
Friday January 13, 2006
http://ap.org

Kiev, Ukraine--Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko said Friday that his country should produce its own nuclear fuel for power plants, part of the West-leaning leader's effort to reduce its reliance on Russia following a dispute over natural gas.

"We must change our uranium policy--our policy on the use of uranium for peaceful purposes," Yushchenko said on national television.

"We must cooperate with international allies on a serious political and economic level so that we can have a full cycle of processing and production of nuclear fuel."

Yushchenko's call could put his Western allies in an awkward position as they seek to balance the desire to help Ukraine shed Russian influence with concerns about nuclear weapons proliferation and their campaign to contain Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The announcement came after Moscow and Kiev ended a public fight over natural gas with a deal last week that nearly doubled the price of gas for Ukraine and drew protests from Yushchenko's opponents ahead of a March parliamentary election.

The compromise was reached only after Russia briefly cut off gas supplies to Ukraine, whose pipelines pump most of the gas Russia exports to Europe.

Ukraine is the site of the world's worst nuclear accident, in 1986 an explosion and fire occurred at a reactor at the Chernobyl plant, which has been shut for good.

Nearly two decades later, the nation of 47 million relies on four operating nuclear power plants for about half its electricity production and it depends on Russia for fuel that feeds them.

Ukraine supplies Russia with raw uranium, then buys it back after enrichment; a full nuclear cycle means that Ukraine would be enriching uranium by itself.

Uranium enrichment is a possible pathway to the development of nuclear arms, but Yushchenko insisted his country, a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog--had only peaceful intentions.

Yushchenko's announcement comes amid a mounting international standoff over Iran's refusal to give up uranium enrichment, and against the background of calls to halt the spread of enrichment facilities.

IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei has proposed a moratorium on the construction of any new enrichment plants, and President Bush has proposed principles that would limit enrichment tecnology to countries that already carry it out.

Yushchenko's call for a nuclear cycle poses "a dilemma for the Bush administration,"
said Edwin Lyman, senior staff scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a private nuclear proliferation watchdog group.

"This is an ally, they want to support an independent Ukraine that can stand up to Russia...but it would violate this policy that Bush has proposed."

IAEA officials said they had no comment late Friday.

Yushchenko said providing Ukraine the capability of producing its own nuclear fuel was part of his plan for creating "an independent energy balance" within five years.

He also said the nation should be diversifying gas supplies and developing its own gas fields.