The flag of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) flies in front of its headquarters during a board of governors meeting in Vienna November 28, 2013. Iran has invited U.N. inspectors to visit a nuclear-related heavy water facility on December 8, t
The flag of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) flies in front of its headquarters during a board of governors meeting in Vienna November 28, 2013. Iran has invited U.N. inspectors to visit a nuclear-related heavy water facility on December 8, their chief said on Thursday, a first concrete step under a plan to clarify concerns about Tehran's disputed nuclear programme. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader

Kazakhstan and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have signed a deal on Thursday to set-up the first bank of low-enriched uranium to be controlled internationally. It will be located in the ex-Soviet Union to make sure fuel is supplied as and when required, while preventing nuclear proliferation at the same time.

The fuel bank will be established at Ust-Kamenogorsk in north-eastern Kazakhstan. The plant will completely be managed and operated by the IAEA but will work based on Kazakhstan’s laws.

The bank will be in operation from 2017 with excellent storage facility for low-enriched uranium or LEU. The IAEA confirmed that the fuel bank will store about 90 tonnes of uranium to help make a typical light water reactor. “The LEU can be used to make enough nuclear fuel to power a large city for three years,” it stated .

On Wednesday, the IAEA said in a statement that this initiative will help the member states to have a safe access to ready reserves of minerals that could be used for fuelling power reactors. They will not have to face any difficulties in securing those materials on the international market. The White House also appreciated this initiative of the IAEA.

The set-up of the Kazakhstan’s fuel bank will ensure countries do not build enrichment facilities, which are misused to purify uranium and make weapons, one of the reasons that created rifts between Iran and the West.

“This IAEA fuel bank will enable and encourage peaceful uses of nuclear energy, while reducing the risks of proliferation and reducing the risks of catastrophic terrorism,” Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov and Director General of the U.N. nuclear watchdog Yukiya Amano have signed the deal. Sam Nunn, former U.S. senator and present co-chairman and chief executive of Nuclear Threat Initiative, or NTI, claimed during a speech after signing the deal in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan.

NTI is a non-profit organisation set up to assist the achievement of the goals of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, which is a milestone behind the setting-up of the fuel bank.

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