Kazakhstan to Join Russian Fuel Bank Plan

Kazakhstan plans to join a Russian effort to establish an international nuclear “fuel bank” at a uranium enrichment facility in Siberia, the Washington Times reported today (see GSN, Dec. 19, 2006).

Russia has been working to convert its site at Angarsk to a multilaterally operated production facility that would supply emerging nations with nuclear fuel, thereby reducing the need for those countries to build their own fuel production sites.

Russian President Vladimir Putin would sign the deal on a visit to Kazakhstan beginning today, Kazakh Foreign Minister Marat Tazhin told Times journalists yesterday.

“Today it is just a bilateral arrangement, but it could be open to any country that wants to use the mechanism,” he said.

Whether the plan would gain additional momentum remains unclear.

“It is difficult right now to say who might want to join,” Tazhin said.

One nonproliferation expert suggested that the nations of most concern would probably not participate.

“We have to understand the limitations of these ideas,” said Arms Control Association head Daryl Kimball.  “No amount of fuel supply assurances are likely to satisfy countries like Iran, because fundamentally they want to preserve at least the option of enrichment for their own purposes.”

Both the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency have proposed similar mechanisms intended to persuade more nations not to build nuclear fuel production sites (see GSN, Feb. 8).  Those sites could also be used to manufacture nuclear weapon materials, the Times reported.

Russia has argued that its site is ready to go and therefore its plan could be implemented faster than the others.

The Bush administration is “largely neutral” on the Russian plan, said a U.S. official (David Sands, Washington Times, May 9).

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