Japan, Russia set to sign nuclear deal

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TOKYO, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Japan and Russia are close to reaching a uranium enrichment deal for fuel in nuclear power plants, a Japanese daily said Thursday.

Japan's government and major electric power companies have entered the final stage of negotiations with Russia for consigning the enrichment of uranium to a nuclear plant to be built in Russia, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, citing sources close to the deal.

The Russian plant, Atomenergoprom, or Atomprom, is to be established as Russia's state-run monopoly for the nuclear energy industry, it said.

"The Japanese side plans to initially consign the enrichment of uranium that was recovered from spent fuel rods and have been stored in Britain," the newspaper said.