UAE donates $10m to ‘uranium bank’ for nuclear ambitious states
The UAE has contributed US$10 million (Dh36.73m) to a “uranium bank” that has been established to discourage countries from enriching nuclear fuel themselves.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s global nuclear watchdog, opened the $150m bank in Kazakhstan yesterday.
The low-enriched uranium bank in Oskemen, in east Kazakhstan, 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 bank will serve as a last-resort mechanism to provide confidence to countries that they will be able to obtain low-enriched uranium for the manufacture of fuel for nuclear power plants in the event of an unforeseen, non-commercial disruption to their supplies,” said IAEA director general, Yukiya Amano.
Countries such as Iran have said they need enrichment facilities to ensure a steady supply of fuel for nuclear power plants, and the idea behind the bank is to make such supply available without domestic enrichment.
Russia has operated a similar bank since 2010, but the one in Kazakhstan will be the first fully owned and operated by the global nuclear watchdog.
“By hosting the IAEA bank, Kazakhstan has made another contribution to strengthening the global non-proliferation regime,” said Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev as he handed Mr Amano a symbolical key to the facility at a ceremony in Astana.
“I am confident the IAEA low-enriched uranium bank will make a valuable contribution to international efforts to ensure the availability of fuel for nuclear power plants.”
The IAEA said it would begin buying uranium soon, with the aim to ship it to the bank next year. The project was funded by donors including the US, EU, Kuwait, the UAE, Norway and the Nuclear Threat Initiative.