Russia offers Brazil new uranium production technologies

Brasilia, Oct 31 (RIA Novosti) Russia has offered Brazil new advanced technologies to produce uranium and build new nuclear power plants, a top official of Russia's nuclear corporation said Friday.

'The first direction of cooperation is the prospecting (the process of physically searching minerals or fossils) and production of natural uranium,' said Rosatom's head Sergei Kiriyenko, who is in Brazil to lead the Russia Days events.

Kiriyenko said with the help of Russian technologies, officials have so far surveyed 25-30 percent of Brazil's territory at shallow depths for uranium deposits. This limited search, however, showed uranium deposits of some 350,000 tonnes, making Brazil sixth largest uranium producer.

'We have a firm conviction that if modern technologies were used here (Brazil), then natural uranium reserves in Brazil could be increased by many times, at least threefold but possibly five- or tenfold,' he said.

Russia and Brazil could also coperate in the nuclear sphere, the official said, and added that his country was ready to share its experience in superconducting technologies with the Latin American nation which has a big interest in low-temperature conductors.

Kiriyenko also said that both the nations have expressed thier desires to expand bilateral trade, and it would soon touch $10 billion annually.