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Updated April 2006
Kazakhstan Profile: Full-Text Documents
Statement Regarding the Signature of the BN-350 Nuclear Materials Disposition Program
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THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Vice President
For Immediate Release November 18, 1997
U.S.-KAZAKHSTAN JOINT COMMISSION
BN-350 Nuclear Materials Disposition Program Is Signed
Vice President Al Gore and President Nursultan Nazarbayev, during the U.S.-Kazakhstan Joint Commission, announced today agreement on the Nuclear Materials Disposition program. This agreement, signed today by Secretary of Energy Pena and First Deputy Prime Minister Yesimov, commits the U.S. Department of Energy and Department of State, and the Kazakhstan Ministry of Science-Academy of Science to a undertake non-proliferation initiative involving a multi-year effort to secure and place into long-term storage plutonium-bearing spent nuclear fuel. The U.S. and Kazakhstan previously worked together to remove 600 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from Kazakhstan to the United States under Project Sapphire. This new effort will be the largest nuclear material security program undertaken by the two countries.
Ensuring secure storage of nuclear materials is a shared priority of the United States and Kazakhstan. U.S.- Kazakhstan co-operation on the secure storage of nuclear -material started several years ago under the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, and continues under the U.S. Department of Energy and the Kazakhstan Ministry of Science-Academy of Science. The BN-350 program will secure, stabilize, and store plutonium-bearing spent nuclear fuel assemblies currently in the Aktau reactor's core or its spent fuel pool, and alleviate a significant proliferation risk. The program is a result of a highly collaborative effort between U.S. and Kazakhstani technical and diplomatic officials and is an important new step in U.S. efforts to help assure the security and safety of nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union.
The Ministry of Science-Academy of Science has stated that the reactor will be shut down and decommissioned no later than the year 2003, eliminating it as a source of additional spent fuel. The BN-350 program will assist Kazakhstan to manage nuclear materials effectively on a long-term basis and existing compliance with its safeguards agreement with the IAEA. This program will use technical and financial resources of both the United States and Kazakhstan to accomplish the work. The program will be completed as quickly as possible, taking into consideration availability of resources and the need to conduct all work safely. This program builds on existing bilateral material protection, control and accounting and nuclear safety programs in Kazakhstan and will be an important milestone both in removing a substantial proliferation risk and expanding U.S.-Kazakhstan cooperation.
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