Nazarbayev proposes to legalize status of all de-facto nuclear states

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has proposed convening a summit of all states possessing nuclear weapons and legalize their status.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. global nuclear watchdog, opened a uranium bank in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, a $150-million facility designed to discourage new nations from enriching the nuclear fuel.

"By hosting the IAEA LEU bank, Kazakhstan has made another contribution to strengthening the global non-proliferation regime," Nazarbayev said as he handed IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano a symbolical key to the facility at a ceremony in Astana.

The Low Enriched Uranium Bank in the city of Oskemen will store up to 90 tonnes of the fuel, enough to power a large city for three years, and sell it to IAEA members if they are unable to procure it elsewhere, the New York Times reported.