Russia makes year's first uranium shipment to U.S.

MOSCOW, April 8 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Techsnabexport shipped on April 7 the first batch of low-enriched uranium to the United States in 2009 under a bilateral agreement, nuclear-power corporation Atomenergoprom said on Wednesday.

Techsnabexport, a Russian company that exports goods and services produced by the nuclear power sector, is integrated into Atomenergoprom.

"This shipment has initiated the schedule of deliveries in 2009, which will be carried out at a new price approved by the governments of both countries," Atomenergoprom said in a statement.

Russia and the United States are cooperating in the nuclear sphere on the HEU-LEU project. The HEU-LEU contract, also known as the Megatons to Megawatts agreement, was signed in February 1993 and expires in 2013.

It aims to convert 500 metric tons of high-enriched uranium (HEU), the equivalent of approximately 20,000 nuclear warheads, from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons into low-enriched uranium (LEU), which is then converted into nuclear fuel for use in U.S. commercial reactors.