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WASHINGTON - The United States and Russia on Tuesday pledged to expand nuclear energy co-operation, make nuclear power available to other states and reduce their own strategic nuclear weapons to the lowest possible levels.
The initiatives aimed to capitalize on and shape a growing demand for nuclear energy and to answer complaints that Moscow and Washington, with the world's biggest nuclear weapons arsenals, are intent on maintaining overwhelming dominance.
But they immediately drew fire from some nuclear experts.
Companies in both countries could profit immensely from an explosion in reliance on nuclear power generation.
US negotiator Robert Joseph said more than a dozen countries are interested in acquiring nuclear reactors and "now is the time to help shape their decisions in a way that advances our common interests."
US President George W Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin see nuclear energy playing a central role in the future and the new initiative "is about meeting the world's energy requirements ... development (and) assisting nations to enjoy the benefits of nuclear power," he said.
The aim is to present countries that abide by international rules with "an attractive offer ... to acquire power reactors without the need to pursue indigenous enrichment and reprocessing," processes that could also be used in weapons production, he told a news briefing.
In a statement issued a day after Bush and Putin met in Kennebunkport, Maine, the two countries said they initialed a formal bilateral nuclear co-operation agreement and listed 10 ways for fulfilling their pledge of broader cooperation with other countries.
These included "facilitating the supply of a range of modern, safe and more proliferation resistant nuclear power reactors and research reactors appropriate to meet the varying energy needs of developing and developed countries."
The United States and Russia will help secure financing, including through international institutions, for new nuclear plants and help states develop necessary regulations, safety standards and training programmes, the statement said.
Nuclear fuel would be provided by a Russian-Khazakhstan uranium enrichment reprocessing centre or other leasing arrangements. Solutions will be developed to deal with the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, Joseph and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said.
Kislyak suggested Iran and North Korea could participate but Joseph dismissed that as premature because the two states do not have "good nonproliferation credentials."
Nuclear expert Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists said if the administration really wanted to curb proliferation, it "shouldn't be encouraging reprocessing and the increase in stockpiles of separated plutonium around the world."
Russia balked at an earlier deal for disposing plutonium "so we don't need more empty promises and more bilateral statements that don't go anywhere. The goal has to be to secure and eliminate stocks of weapons usable materials in both countries," he told Reuters.
In their push to prevent states like North Korea and Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the United States and other nuclear weapons states have been accused of a two-tiered system in which some states are allowed by international law to have atomic weapons and other states are denied that right.
Attempting to address that issue, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov issued a statement reiterating their intention to reduce both countries strategic arsenals "to the lowest possible level consistent with their national security requirements."
They said they discussed ways to provide "continuity and predictability" after the START treaty expires in 2009 but gave no target weapons totals or other details.
- REUTERS
