Russia
has signed a deal with the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), to set up the world's first nuclear fuel
bankoflow-enriched uranium forcountries that needfuel
for civilian purposes, including nuclear power plants.
Russia
's atomic energy chief, Sergei Kiriyenko, signed the deal with IAEA head
Yukiya Amano in
Vienna
on March 29. The IAEA says the bank will eventually hold a stockpile of
120 tons of low-enriched uranium.
Kiriyenko, who heads
Russia
's state-owned nuclear company Rosatom, said the bank will be located in
the southern Siberian city of
Angarsk
.
Russia
and
Kazakhstan
have had a uranium enrichment facility there since 2007.
He predicted that nearly a third of the total uranium stockpile should be ready
to sell by the end of the year.
But he stressed that the bank's reserves are meant to be used only in cases of
urgent need and to avoid interruptions in a country's supply.
Non-Proliferation Effort
The Russian deal was approved by the IAEA last November and is the result of
years of planning to establish a reliable source of low-enriched uranium for
civilian nuclear programs in countries with a perfect non-proliferation record.
Under the agreement, countries will formally request nuclear fuel from the
IAEA, which will then transfer the request to
Russia
.
Russia
will cover the costs involved in setting up the bank.
Corey Hinderstein, of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, took part in consultations
with the IAEA on the fuel bank initiative andsays most of the countries
where civilian nuclear energy is expanding are "foreconomic,
political, and technological reasons...not likely to want to rely on indigenous
fuel cycle facilities to be able to supply their nuclear energy programs, and
they'll want to rely on the international markets."
The creation of an international nuclear fuel bank, an idea strongly backed by
the
United States
, was also meant to give
Iran
an opportunity to change its course. The international community suspects
Iran
is trying to build atomic weapons, a claim that
Tehran
denies.
But Richard Weitz, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, says the creation of
the bank comes too late to influence
Iran
's
nuclear program.
"The hope was that the
Russia
or some other countries would develop this fuel bank and that, in particular,
Iran
would rely on it rather than develop its own enrichment capabilities,"
Weitz said. "But that's not going to happen. That was a few years ago. But
it's still thought that this could prove useful, perhaps, in other cases -- for
example, [regarding] some of
Iran
's
neighbors that are looking at a nuclear program."
The IAEA says the bank is a way to meet demand from some 60 nations for
technical help in launching peaceful atomic energy programs without increasing
the risk of proliferation.
Russia
has its own stake in hosting the fuel bank. Since becoming prime
minister in May 2008, Vladimir Putin has made strengthening
Russia
's
nuclear power sector a top economic priority.
During a visit to India earlier this month, Putin signed multi-billion-dollar
deals to build up to 16 nuclear reactors, and said Russia hopes to eventually
control a quarter of the global nuclear power market.
(
from www.rferl.org)