nuclear-news

On Oct. 18, nuclear energy juggernaut Rosatom will complete a corporate deal giving it 100 percent control over Canada-based uranium mining company Uranium One, including the company’s U.S. operations in Wyoming, the epicenter of U.S. uranium production. Moscow’s acquisition of Uranium One will also provide Rosatom — the world’s leading builder of nuclear power plants — with uranium exploration rights in Arizona, Colorado, and Utah……

Rosatom’s nuclear projects also include ventures with China and Venezuela, two countries with less-than-friendly relations with the United States. Russian news agencies also quoted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in May 2010 as saying that he discussed with then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev the possibility of building nuclear power plants in Syria.

To put it mildly, with a client roster like this, questions abound regarding Rosatom’s acquisition of Uranium One. When Rosatom acquired its first controlling shares in 2010, the deal came under congressional fire. Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla), Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), Peter King (R-N.Y.), and Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) penned a letter to then-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warning that “signing over control of this U.S. uranium processing facility to the Russian government unnecessarily jeopardizes U.S. security interests.”……

Fast-forward three years, and the proposed transfer of 100 percent control of Uranium One to Rosatom has barely elicited a peep from Congress or the administration. Nor has it raised an eyebrow in Ottawa. In March, Rosatom received approval from the Supreme Court of Ontario, Canada. …..

While the American regulatory regime is a trusted system, the regime in Moscow is not. Russia has a history of transferring dangerous materials and technologies to rogue regimes, and Rosatom, according to a 2007 report on nuclear nonproliferation by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), “denied [GAO’s] request for access to facilities under its control.”……..

given Russia’s track record, can we trust Rosatom to play by our rules?
 http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/moscows-american-uranium-98472.html#ixzz2i9L6m700