Kazakhs and Chinese strike nuclear deal

Kazakhstan has agreed to share uranium with China, the Financial Times reported. The Central Asian country's state-owned nuclear power firm, Kazatomprom, will transfer a 49% stake in a uranium production venture to China National Nuclear Corp and China Nuclear Guangdong Power Corp in exchange for equity in a Chinese nuclear fuel processing or electricity generation plant. The agreement is expected to be finalized by next month. The central government has said it wants 40 new nuclear plants to be built in China by 2020, but the country's uranium reserves in the western Xinjiang region, near Kazakhstan, are dwindling. Kazakhstan has said it wants to more than double its uranium output by 2010 to become the world's biggest producer.