Novosibirsk plant launches uranium dioxide powder production line.

NOVOSIBIRSK, September 4 (Itar-Tass) -- The Novosibirsk Chemical
Concentrates Plant (NCCP), an affiliate of the nuclear fuel manufacturing
company TVEL under the nuclear power corporation Rosatom) has launched a
new line for the production of uranium dioxide powder based on a more
efficient technology - pyrohydrolisis of uranium hexafluoride, Itar-Tass
was told at the company.
The powder is eventually pressed into uranium dioxide tablets - the
basis of nuclear fuel for atomic power plants.
Investments into the project have amounted to more than 800 million
rubles. The expected output of uranium dioxide - 400 tonnes a year - is to
be achieved toward the end of 2010. The line just commissioned at the
Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant is a pilot production unit of
domestic manufacture. About 60 percent of the equipment was provided by
Russian contractors, including TVEL affiliates.
"The use of the PUH technology in the production of uranium dioxide
powder will substantially reduce production costs," said the company's
representative. Moreover, the performance of the new equipment is three
times higher than that of the existing lines. The consumption of nuclear
materials will reduce and hazardous pressures on the environment.
TVEL President Yuri Olenin said at the launch ceremony that the
modernization was due at other TVEL facilities, too.
The NCCP is one of the leading enterprises within the state-owned
corporation TVEL and Russia's largest producer of fuel for nuclear power
plants and of fuel assemblies. A large share of its products is supplied
to consumers abroad, particularly, those in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic,
Japan and Canada. The plant provides fuel for more than 20 water-moderated
VVER reactors in Russia and in other countries.

.Kazakhstan, Russia to jointly produce gas.

ASTANA, September 4 (Itar-Tass) -- Kazakhstan and Russia are readying
for signature an agreement on joint geological exploration of the Imashev
cross-border gas and gas condensate field. It is to be concluded at the
seventh forum interregional cooperation in the Ust-Kamenogorsk, on
September 6-7, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Economic Development and Trade
told a news conference earlier this week.
"That field will be the first one located in the territories of both
states and developed jointly," the statement said.
The Imashev gas condensate field lies at the junction of Russia's
Astrakhan Region and the Atyrau Region of Kazakhstan. Its reserves are
estimated at 128.7 billion cubic meters of gas and 20.7 million tonnes of
gas condensate.

.Law on insurance of medics' liability to patients to take effect 2013.

MOSCOW, September 4 (Itar-Tass) -- In 2013 Russia is to enact a
special law on the mandatory insurance of health care organizations' civil
liability to patients. The bill is to be considered by the State Duma next
spring.
"We have synchronized its timing with the completion of the program to
modernize health care," Deputy Health and Social Development Minister Yuri
Voronin told a news conference this week.
He explained he was referring to a transitional period within the
framework of the industry's modernization, to be completed by 2013.
Voronin said the Duma had before it a bill that was unique in various
respects. First and foremost, there have never been such a trend in
domestic legislation before. Patients who have suffered from wrong actions
by medics will be paid decent compensations.
"At present compensations are meager," Voronin recalled. The bill
stipulates that in case of the patient's death the heirs will be paid 2
million rubles. If the patient's treatment has resulted in first group
disability - the compensation will amount to 1.5 million rubles, (second
group disability entails a one-million-ruble compensation, and third group
disability, 500 thousand rubles). "In the future, these amounts may be
adjusted upwards," Voronin said.
The compensations to patients will be paid from insurance companies.
Only companies with an authorized capital of 2 billion rubles will be
allowed to operate on this market. Furthermore, the share of foreign
capital in insurance companies should not exceed 20 percent. Also, the
insurance company must be represented in no fewer than 75 regions of
Russia and have an office in each federal district.
Medical organizations will contribute funds to the insurance company
on the basis of a special rate - two percent of the amount of medical
assistance provided.
"This is the base rate," said Voronin. He explained that the tariff
would range depending on the qualification of medical workers, types of
medical assistance and other parameters. For providing false information
about their work medical establishments will be fined. Whether this or
that case is liable to insurance will be decided by a special commission.
It will include representatives from federal expert agencies, healthcare
watchdog Roszdravnadzor, local authorities, and organizations protecting
the rights of patients.
Voronin said that patients would not have to pay anything. The bill
has been posted on the website of the Health and Social Development
Ministry.

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