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Russia, US fail to resolve Taiwan's nuclear waste issue

Discussions between US and Russian officials this week failed to make any progress on an agreement that would help Taiwan solve its problem of where to store tonnes of spent nuclear fuel, senior US and Russian officials said.

Supporters of the agreement had hoped to have a deal in place before a summit later this month between US President George W. Bush and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Russian nuclear energy minister Alexander Rumyantsev spent three days in Washington this week, meeting with US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, members of Congress and others to set the stage for nuclear and non-proliferation issues for the summit meeting.

While the spent-fuel issue came up, Rumyantsev and Abraham told reporters little progress was made.

Taiwanese authorities are seeking to find repositories for spent fuel generated by the nation's nuclear power plants, and have been holding talks with Russia, seeking to ship the waste now stored at Orchid Island and other sites to Russia for long-term storage.

But the deal has been held up by a requirement that Washington must agree to the transfer, since Taiwan's nuclear power plants were built, and the nuclear material supplied, by US firms.

To move the material to Russia, Washington and Moscow must decide how the waste will be handled, which would require settlement of the "Agreement of Cooperation on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy" under the US Atomic Energy Act enacted in 1954.

While the week's meetings centered on nuclear weapons and non-proliferation issues, Taiwan's nuclear-waste problem did come up, both sides revealed at a press conference on Thursday.

"Yes, indeed, we touched upon this issue," Rumyantsev told reporters. "But the signing of such an agreement really requires a lot of time for preparation," he said.

"We really haven't had any specific discussions of Taiwan fuels, American-based or American-sourced fuels at this point," Abraham said. "That's one of a lot of the issues that are engaged in broader agreements that are not yet formulated," he said.

The possibility of Taiwan shipping its spent fuel to Russia surfaced last June, when the Russian parliament approved a law allowing the importation of spent nuclear fuel.

While specific plans were formulated, the issue has been bogged down by the Russian environmental movement, which opposes the importation of spent fuel.
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