In 1994, a joint U.S.-Kazakhstan operation named Project Sapphire removed approximately 600kg of weapons-grade HEU to the United States from the Ulba Metallurgy Plant.[3] Project Sapphire also involved the 2001 removal of 2,900kg of nuclear fuel (enriched up to 26% U-235) from the Mangyshlak Atomic Energy Combine in Aktau. The material at Mangyshlak was transferred to Ulba, where it was down-blended into non-weapons usable forms of uranium for use in commercial and scientific activities. [4]

Approximately 10,590 to 10,940 kilograms (including at least 20kg in fresh fuel, and the remainder in spent fuel) of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and 3,000kg of plutonium remained at the now shutdown BN-350 fast-breeder reactor in Aktau, Kazakhstan, until November 2010, when the entire inventory was transported to the long-term Baikal-1 depository at Semipalatinsk, northeast Kazakhstan. [5] However, a small amount of HEU is still stored at two civilian nuclear institutes with operational research reactors.[6] Efforts to convert the VVR-K reactor at the Institute of Nuclear Physics are ongoing under the U.S. Global Threat Reduction Initiative program.[7]

Kazakhstan currently possesses approximately 15 to 30% of the world's uranium reserves, and has expressed its intent to become the world's largest producer of uranium under its "number one in the world" program.[8] It also seeks to promote economic development through civilian nuclear cooperation programs.[9] Evidence of this strategy can be seen in the recent expansion of nuclear cooperation with China, India. [10] Furthermore, Kazatomprom - the country's state-owned nuclear energy company - holds a 10% stake in the International Uranium Enrichment Center based in Angarsk, Russia. [11]

Kazakhstan is a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), START-I, and the IAEA Additional Protocol. Astana ratified the International Convention For the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism on 14 May 2008, and is an active partner in the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism. The foreign ministers of the five Central Asian States--Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan--signed a treaty establishing a Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone (CANWFZ) on 8 September 2006. On 11 December 2008, Kazakhstan completed ratification of the CANWFZ Treaty.

Sources:
[1] Pavel Podvig (ed.), Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces (Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2004), pp. 150-167.
[2] Pavel Podvig (ed.), Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces (Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2004), pp. 150-167.
[3] David Hoffman, The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy (New York: Doubleday, 2009), pp. 439-458.
[4] "Kazakhstan," First Watch International, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, www.sipri.org.
[5] "NNSA Secures 775 Nuclear Weapons worth of Weapons-Grade Nuclear Material from BN-350 Fast Reactor in Kazakhstan," Press Release from the National Nuclear Security Administration, 18 November 2010, http://nnsa.energy.gov.
[6] Luke Schlichter, "Reported Accomplishments of Selected Threat Reduction and Nonproliferation Programs," PGS Policy Update: Partnership for Global Security, December 2006.
[7] "Seventh Annual Report," Global Threat Reduction Program, United Kingdom, Department of Energy and Climate, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 2009.
[8] Anya Loukianova, "The International Uranium Enrichment Center at Angarsk: A Step Towards Assured Fuel Supply?" Issue Brief for the Nuclear Threat Initiative, November 2008, www.nti.org.
[9] "Uranium and Nuclear Power in Kazakhstan," World Nuclear Association, 18 November 2010, www.world-nuclear.org.
[10] Raushan Nurshayeva, "Kazakhstan, China sign gas, nuclear, energy deals," Reuters, 12 June 2009, www.reuters.com; "Canada and Kazakhstan agree on nuclear cooperation," World Nuclear News, 15 September 2009, www.world-nuclear-news.org; "India, Kazakhstan sign new nuclear pact," Express India, 24 January 2009, xpressindia.com; "Kazakhstan and UAE in nuclear energy cooperation," Gulf News, 2 September 2010, www.gulfnews.com.
[11] Sergey Ruchkin, International Uranium Enrichment Centre (IUEC) in Angarsk (Russia) and the International Assurances of Supply, PIR Center for Policy Studies in Russia, 17 April 2007, www.pircenter.org.