DUSHANBE, July 16, 2008, Asia-Plus -- Radioactive waste should be processed repeatedly, Jabbor Salomov, the deputy director of the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Agency within the Tajik Academy of Sciences, remarked at a press conference in Dushanbe on July 15.  

According to him, specialists from the Agency have revealed high content of uranium in the waste.  The majority of this waste located in the north of the country belongs to the state enterprise Vostokredmet (Rare Metals), the expert said.    

“Ore was processed in the 1940-50s, when there were no proper technologies, and therefore, the content of uranium in the radioactive waste has remained high,” Salomov said.

 He noted that the Tajik-Russian joint venture Rostokmed had been launched at the Ministry of energy and Industries (MoEI) to carry out this process.  They are currently conducting survey and after that the repeated processing of the radioactive waste will be launched at the Vostokredmet enterprise.  

The expert stressed that serbent, which is used to isolate uranium from the waste, could be produced in Tajikistan, because apricot contains raw materials needed for production of the serbent.