Japan and Kazakh firms to tie-up in nuclear fuel processing

Japan's Kansai Electric Power Co and trading house Sumitomo Corp will tie up with Kazakhstan's state-run energy company in uranium processing for nuclear power generation, an official said Wednesday.
The move is part of a wider effort by Asia's largest economy to forge closer ties with uranium-rich Kazakhstan so as to reduce its dependence on increasingly expensive Middle East crude oil.
The Japanese firms will sign an agreement Wednesday with Kazatomprom in the aim of securing a stable supply of nuclear fuel, said Mitsuji Mori, a spokesman for Kansai Electric, which supplies power to a large swathe of western Japan.
Under the tie-up, state-owned Kazatomprom will handle the reconversion stage of the nuclear fuel cycle at a facility in Kazakhstan to turn enriched uranium into powder. Kansai Electric and Sumitomo meanwhile will provide expertise and funding for necessary modifications of the plant, which is capable of producing roughly twice as much nuclear fuel as needed by Japan, Mori said.