The International Atomic Energy Agency ceremonially opened a $150-million facility in Kazakhstan to store and distribute nuclear-power fuel for peaceful uses, the United Nations-chartered body announced Tuesday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU) Bank Storage Facility at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Ust-Kamenogorsk will eventually distribute LEU to IAEA member states that want nuclear power but do not invest in nuclear fuel-cycle technology that could be used to produce weapons material. The Ulba Metallurgical Plant broke ground on the nearly 9,500-square-foot facility in September 2016. It eventually will hold up to 90 metric tons of LEU.
The facility will begin its real work “once the LEU, the basic ingredient to fabricate nuclear fuel, has been purchased and delivered to the Storage Facility,” the IAEA said in a press release issued as agency Director General Yukiya Amano and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev attended an opening ceremony for the facility in the nation’s capital, Astana.
“The procurement process for the acquisition of LEU is well advanced and the Request for Proposal inviting bids from interested suppliers will be published soon, with the aim to transport the LEU to the Storage Facility in 2018,” the U.N. nuclear watchdog said.
The IAEA authorized the bank in 2010, a year after then-U.S. President Barack Obama endorsed such a facility in a speech on nuclear disarmament in Prague. The Kazakh government and IAEA agreed to locate the facility in northeast Kazakhstan in 2015.
The nongovernmental Nuclear Threat Initiative, though a donation by U.S. investor Warren Buffett, provided $50 million for the LEU bank in Kazakhstan. The United States, European Union, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, and Norway also provided financial support. The $150 million raised so far will pay for the facility itself, plus 20 years of operations, IAEA said.
