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by ADAM TANNER, Reuters

A Russian Atomic Energy Ministry official who took part in September talks in Zurich confirmed to Reuters Moscow was exploring reprocessing and storing spent fuel from Switzerland and other Western nations but had struck no deals yet.

"There were such talks, but that does not mean that Russia or Russian representatives have agreed to import or export anything," said Boris Nikipelov, a ministry marketing expert.

"The question is being studied in Switzerland and France and Germany and in the East."

In Zurich, Swiss utilities acknowledged having held talks on storing nuclear waste in Russia, but they did not inform Swiss authorities since no contractual agreements had been made.

"A memorandum of understanding is not a contract and therefore not presented to authorities," the Swiss utility Nordostschweizerische Kraftwerke (NOK) said in a statement which it released on behalf of itself and other nuclear utilities.

Greenpeace released a September 17 document signed by Russia and a Swiss utility official from Elektrizitaets-Gesellschaft Laufenburg AG expressing Swiss interest in sending spent fuel to Russia for permanent storage.

"Such a shipment is completely illegal under Russian environmental law," Greenpeace anti-nuclear campaigner Igor Forofontov said. "Society knows nothing of these activities."

NOK said the fact that Swiss utilities have made various international contacts to talk about permanent international storage sites has been publicly known for years.

The memorandum did nothing more than confirm talks would also be held with Russia about the possibility of international long-term storage of radioactive nuclear waste, it added.

A spokeswoman for Switzerland's Environment,Energy and Transport Ministry said they learned of the memorandum from the Greenpeace statement.

Nikipelov, one of two ministry officials present at the talks, said nuclear officials were trying to change a 1991 law that allows reprocessing but not storage of foreign waste. "Before reprocessing you need to have storage," he said.

Many countries import or export nuclear power plant waste, but the issue alarms some Russia experts who say the country is already unable to handle its own waste left from the Soviet era.

Before the 1991 law was adopted, Russia imported waste from countries using Soviet-designed nuclear power plants including Ukraine, Lithuania and Finland, officials said.

"All necessary safety measures are taken: a special train, reinforced security," said Yuri Bespalko, a spokesman for Russia's Atomic Energy Ministry. "So far there is no basis to sound an alarm. This alarm by Greenpeace is a false alarm."

If the nuclear waste imports from Switzerland take place from 2000 to 2030 as outlined in the preliminary protocol, it would be the first time Russia had accepted nuclear waste from Western-designed reactors, officials said.

Environmental officials estimated Russia stood to earn between $270 and $1,000 a kg ($120 and $450 a pound) by taking nuclear waste, with the Swiss protocol calling for several thousand tonnes to be sent to Russia over the 30-year period.

Such amounts mean billions of dollars for cash-strapped Russia, but political pressure from environmental groups has already ended an agreement to process Finnish nuclear waste.