Kazakhstan to found international bank of nuclear fuel

Kazakhstan plans to form an international bank of nuclear fuel by 2013, Chairman of the Kazakh Agency for Nuclear Energy Timur Jantikin said, Kazinform reports.

He clarified that the bank may be formed in summer-autumn 2013, depending on how fast a document with IAEA will be composed. The Ust-Kamenogorsk metallurgy factory in Ulbinsk will be the basis for Kazakh nuclear fuel. It needs minor modernization.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed establishment of the bank in 2009. IAEA approved the idea. The state will gather about 60 tons of low-enriched uranium in gas form with low radioactivity. The nuclear bank will make obtaining nuclear weapons more complicated.

IAEA and other organizations plan to provide $150 million for the project.