Bloomberg: Russia transports uranium to China, possibly to launch CFR-600 reactor

Bloomberg reports that in December, Russian engineers delivered more than 6,000 kilograms of uranium to the Chinese island of Changbao. China's fast neutron reactor on the island is one of the world's largest nuclear facilities. Changbian is located 220 kilometers off the northern coast of Taiwan.

The United States is concerned that China could use the nuclear fuel for weapons production. In particular, U.S. intelligence officials predict that CFR-600 can produce weapons-grade plutonium.

According to military planners, the CFR-600 could play a decisive role in increasing China's warhead stockpile to 1,500 warheads from the current 400.

The publication notes that the expansion of the nuclear partnership between Russia and China has a significant impact on nuclear nonproliferation efforts. From September to December, according to RUSI, Russia exported almost 7 times more highly enriched uranium to China for reactor use than all the material exported from around the world under the auspices of the United States and the IAEA over the past three decades.

According to RUSI, China paid about $384 million for 25,000 kilograms of CFR-600 fuel from Rosatom during this period.