Washington office for Tenex US subsidiary

Friday, 22 October 2010 Tenam, a fully owned subsidiary of Russian fuel cycle supplier Techsnabexport (Tenex), has opened an office in Washington DC to support, expand and supplement Tenex's business in the USA. Tenam will primarily focus on assisting Tenex in contracting directly with US utilities and on generating new fuel cycle business opportunities in the country. It will also provide sales and marketing services through North and South America. At an opening ceremony for the new office, Tenex director general Alexey Grigoriev said that Tenam, as the first Rosatom affiliate on the American continent, could be seen as a trade mission for the entire Russian nuclear industry. With the end of the US-Russia HEU agreement approaching in 2013, and increasing competition on the world enrichment market as enrichment suppliers upgrade and increase capacity, Grigoriev pointed to Russia's desire to strengthen its share of the US market for enriched uranium products (EUP) as a driver for the establishment of Tenam. Tenex already has 11 long-term contracts to supply EUP to US utilities from 2011, and Grigoriev also referred to Rosatom's willingness to build an enrichment plant based on Russian technology in the US.