MOSCOW, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Russia's state uranium trader Techsnabexport (Tenex) will sign next year at least three deals worth around $1 billion to supply uranium directly to U.S. utilities, Russia's state nuclear firm Rosatom said on Friday.
Russia has long sought direct deals with U.S. utilities.
Analysts say this would be more profitable for Moscow than the current programme set up in 1993 and aimed to encourage a nation still rebuilding after the Cold War to extract and use fuel from dismantled warheads.
Russia has expressed no desire to renew this 20-year programme, called "Megatons to Megawatts" when it expires in 2013. Instead, the Kremlin has sought lucrative deals to supply fuel directly to power firms on the U.S. market.
"In 2009... Techsnabexport achieved direct commercial supplies of uranium output to U.S. utilities, having signed with them six contracts worth a total of around $3 billion," Rosatom's civilian arm AtomEnergoProm said in a statement.
"It is expected that at least three such deals worth around $1 billion will be signed in 2010."
From the moment Russia made the first delivery of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to the United States on May 31, 1995, it has supplied to date a total of 11,049 tonnes of this material recycled from 382 tonnes of bomb-grade material, or highly-enriched uranium (HEU), AtomEnergoProm said.
This is equivalent to 76 percent of the 500 tonnes Russia must supply under the 1993 deal.
"Thus, the 'Megatons to Megawatts' programme has entered its final stage," it said.
Without taking into account the "Megatons to Megawatts" programme, Russia's portfolio of foreign orders for five-year supplies of uranium now stands at more than $8 billion, AtomEnergoProm said.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered the government this week to allocate 14.2 billion roubles ($470.2 million) to Rosatom, which would allow Russia to boost its position on the world nuclear energy market through acquisitions of uranium deposits abroad.
($1=30.20 roubles)
(Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Mike Nesbit)