KIEV, April 14 – Ukraine, after agreeing to give up its highly enriched uranium, will stop being a target for terrorists seeking to obtain the material, Energy and Fuel Minister Yuriy Boyko said Wednesday.

Boyko responded to criticism from opposition groups that President Viktor Yanukovych had used the uranium initiative simply to buy a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington.

“Our [nuclear] reactors will stop being a place of interest for potential terrorists,” Boyko said in comments released by the government. Also, “Ukraine gets access to modern technology and ability to upgrade its research nuclear reactors.”

Ukraine, which is producing almost a half of its power from 15 nuclear reactors, also has several small research reactors that use highly the enriched uranium.

Ukraine’s roughly 90-kilogram stock of highly enriched uranium is sufficient for making “several nuclear weapons,” and was a cause of concern for the Obama administration seeking to focus on protecting the world’s stockpiles of nuclear material from terrorist organizations pursuing the bomb.

Yanukovych, who was inaugurated to the presidency in February, had been seeking to improve its international image and for weeks has been insisting on the meeting with Obama.

The meeting was scheduled only shortly before Yanukovych’s trip to Washington, apparently after Ukraine had agreed to rid itself of the highly enriched uranium, giving Obama one of the most tangible results of his summit.

“This was the payment to make sure the West receives [Yanukovych] well,” Arseniy Yatseniuk, an opposition leader and Yanukovych’s rival at the election, said.

Yatseniuk criticized Yanukovych for giving up the highly enriched uranium without securing sufficient benefits for the country.

“We get rid of these nuclear materials and lose our negotiating power,” Yatseniuk said.

He drew parallel with Ukraine’s decision in the early 1990s to get rid of the nuclear weapons inherited from after the breakup of the Soviet Union without securing sufficient protection for the country.

“This was done under pressure from Russia and the U.S.,” Yatseniuk said. “Ukraine received the so called Budapest memorandum. It’s an interesting paper, but it doesn’t guarantee anything.”

Yatseniuk said the stock of highly enriched uranium could play a security role for Ukraine.

“It’s tens of kilograms, but it is the material for resuming the status of a nuclear country by Ukraine,” Yatseniuk said.

“Let me stress, I am categorically against of the nuclear weapons, but I believe that solving nuclear security problems must not begin with Ukraine,” he said. “Iran has to be dealt with first of all. North Korea, and terrorists that are making money on this.”

Boyko argued that Ukraine will benefit from ridding itself of the dangerous nuclear material by securing U.S. support in building a state-of-the-art nuclear reactor in Kharkiv.

“It’s crucially important that according to the reached agreement a new research reactor will be built in Kharkiv,” Boyko said. “It has no analogs in Ukraine.” (tl/ez)