Sam Nunn
Co-Founder and Co-Chair, NTI
In an op-ed for The International New York Times, NTI Co-Chairman Sam Nunn explains how an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) fuel bank could help make progress in negotiations with Iran. "The ability to acquire low-enriched uranium on a nonpolitical basis in case of interrupted supply could be a significant factor in the negotiations with Iran," writes Nunn. If Russia decided to cut off supply, Ukraine also could benefit from a nuclear fuel bank, he adds.
"Unfortunately, at a time when the fuel bank could be a valuable asset for countries making decisions about their nuclear programs, the bank’s completion is stalled," he writes. Nunn calls for Kazakhstan–the fuel bank's likely host–and the IAEA to resolve the remaining issues quickly and take swift action to open the bank.
"A world where more and more countries make their own nuclear fuel — and thus can also produce nuclear weapons materials — is a far more dangerous world," writes Nunn.
Learn more about the need for an international nuclear fuel bank.
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Read Nobel Laureate and former IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei's statement on the inauguration of the IAEA LEU bank facility in Kazakhstan.
On Aug. 27 2015, the IAEA and the Republic of Kazakhstan signed an agreement to establish a physical reserve of Low Enriched Uranium (LEU Bank) in Oskemen, Kazakhstan.
"We are in a race between cooperation and catastrophe," said NTI Co-Chairman Sam Nunn at the signing ceremony for the new IAEA low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel bank.