Global Security Newswire

Kazakhstan's offer to host a multilateral civilian nuclear fuel repository has received backing from the United States, the former Soviet republic announced yesterday (see GSN, Dec. 16, 2010).

The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation governing board last month approved plans for the fuel bank, which would offer nations civilian atomic reactor fuel on an apolitical basis in hopes of deterring them from pursuing their own capability to produce such material -- a process that could also generate nuclear-weapon fuel.

At a recent meeting with Kazakh Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev, White House arms control chief Gary Samore "confirmed the support of the U.S. government for Kazakhstan’s initiative to host an international nuclear fuel bank under the auspices of IAEA," Interfax quoted the Kazakh Foreign Ministry as saying in a statement.

Facilities at Kazakhstan's Semipalatinsk site and Ust-Kamenogorsk facilities were two locations under consideration to host the fuel bank, the nation has indicated (Interfax, Jan. 27).