The Moscow Times: From Megatons to Megawatts

The Moscow Times: From Megatons to Megawatts

By Gregory Austin and Danila Bochkarev

Russian nuclear fuel is keeping the lights on in California’s homes supplied by the Avila Beach and San Clemente nuclear power plants. Just less than 20 percent of all of the U.S. state’s electricity production comes from nuclear power. But California is not the only state in which Russian nuclear fuel is being widely used for power generation. According to the U.S. Energy Department, in 2007 about 40 percent of nuclear fuel used by the U.S. nuclear power sector came from Russia. In May, Chicago-based Exelon and other U.S. utilities signed a key new agreement with Moscow-based Techsnabexport, or TENEX, allowing direct commercial sales of Russian nuclear fuel to the U.S. market. Previously, U.S. anti-dumping laws only allowed the selling of the uranium recovered from dismantled Soviet nuclear weapons.

Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev confirmed their commitment to resetting the U.S.-Russian strategic partnership during the Moscow summit in July. A good place to jump-start this process is by strengthening cooperation in the nuclear power sector.

Russia and the United States should take a joint leadership role in supporting the global nuclear industry and managing a safer “nuclear renaissance.” For example, both countries should work more closely together to establish an international nuclear fuel bank. A fuel bank based on the proliferation-resistant, closed fuel-cycle solution for civil nuclear energy is a point on which both countries can agree. Moreover, both sides can bring to the partnership valuable expertise in nuclear power generation.

The United States and Russia should build on these foundations by promoting technical cooperation between their respective civil nuclear industries. This would significantly advance their national energy security and bring tangible commercial benefits. Both countries would benefit from demonstrating stronger joint leadership to promote multilateral civil nuclear energy frameworks.

Aside from the benefits for energy security, bilateral cooperation in this field could also help to rejuvenate stalled U.S.-Russian dialogue on other matters of global strategic importance.

Unfortunately, the civil nuclear agenda has often been held hostage, especially under the past administration, to serious divergences between Moscow and Washington over larger global strategic issues, including Iran. There are profound differences in opinion between Russian and Western security experts and elites as to the range of cooperative possibilities in the nuclear energy relationship.

But there is reason for optimism as the stage is already set for closer cooperation between the United States and Russia. In an April 1 joint statement by the Group of Eight, the U.S. and Russian presidents called for further bilateral nuclear cooperation. “Together, we seek to secure nuclear weapons and materials, while promoting the safe use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes,” Medvedev and Obama stressed in the statement.

The United States and Russia share a vision of a sustainable energy future less reliant on dwindling and environmentally damaging fossil fuels. A joint U.S.-Russian initiative on civil nuclear energy would be a step closer to this goal.

The two countries need to make commitments that go beyond their current strategies. For example, Washington and Moscow should resume the process of ratifying the United States-Russia Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, also known as the 123 Agreement. In fact, ratification of the 123 Agreement is an indispensable precondition for conducting joint scientific experiments and developing a full-scale technological and commercial partnership.

Moscow and Washington should also create a bilateral intergovernmental commission to define technical parameters for civil nuclear cooperation and commit to a firm deadline — for example, by the end of 2010 — for making a joint proposal on an international fuel bank that effectively merges the existing national proposals.

They should also establish a firm framework for transferring affordable and proliferation-resistant technology to developing countries. This can be done through a multilateral nuclear technology knowledge bank based on public-private cooperation under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Furthermore, the United States and Russia should use the knowledge bank to develop a set of political and business incentives that promote a clear and rapid move to new power-generation solutions, such as thermo-nuclear fusion.

Civil nuclear energy can play the same role for U.S.-Russian relations that coal and steel played for German-French relations after World War II. A nuclear energy partnership can foster technical cooperation on a practical, functional and nonpoliticized basis, while simultaneously promoting global security.

Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Russia’s State Hermitage Museum last night bought 92 watercolor portraits valued at about 3 million pounds ($4.8 million) from the Paris-based Popoff Collection after the works failed to sell at auction earlier this year.

The St. Petersburg museum, one of the largest in the world, didn’t name the price it paid for the art that it acquired directly from Maurice Baruch, head of Galerie Popoff, one of the biggest Russian art collections in the West.

In October, Christie’s International in London offered about 100 watercolor portraits of the Imperial family and Russian aristocracy by artists such as Karl Briullov, Orest Kiprensky, Petr Sokolov and Vladimir Hau. Only five of these lots sold. The paintings were valued by the London-based auction house at the time as worth between 2.5 million pounds and 3.5 million pounds.

“The 19th-century Russian watercolor portraits from the Popoff Collection are some of the most spectacular of their kind in the world,” Viktor Faibisovich, the Hermitage’s head of new acquisitions, said in a telephone interview.

Faibisovich said the artworks arrived at the Hermitage yesterday, and that plans are being made to display them at the museum at the end of this month.

The top work is Hau’s “Portrait of Natalia Pushhkina,” (1844), wife to Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. That work didn’t sell at Christie’s on a low estimate of 120,000 pounds.

Auction Flop

More than half of the 580 lots failed to sell across the entire collection as Christie’s raised 5.5 million pounds on a low estimate of 9.7 million pounds.

The top presale lot was a 1778 Berlin-made porcelain dinner set that was a gift from the Prussian ruler, Frederick II, to Russia’s heir-to-the-throne, Grand Duke Paul. It failed to sell on a low estimate of 200,000 pounds.

The Russian government, with assistance from private sponsors, paid for the Popoff purchase, said Faibisovich. The museum staff wouldn’t comment on whether it will buy the porcelain in the collection.

Alexandre Popoff, a Paris dealer who opened his gallery in 1920, benefited from refugees arriving in France from the Soviet Union. Some were aristocrats who had to sell their valuables. Popoff’s buyers later included the Duke and Duchess of Windsor; Mstislav Rostropovich, the Russian cellist; actress Greta Garbo and composer Leonard Bernstein.

To contact the writer on the story: John Varoli in St. Petersburg at jvaroli@gmail.com.

Last Updated: December 9, 2009 20:52 EST
Bloomberg: Magnitude 6.1 Earthquake Strikes Sea of Okhotsk, USGS Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a5hWkdRIoeZ0

By Tim Smith

Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- An earthquake measuring 6.1 magnitude has struck the Sea of Okhotsk, 388 kilometers north- west of the Russian Kuril Islands, the U.S. Geological Survey reported on its Web site.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tim Smith in Sydney at tsmith58@bloomberg.net