Azerbaijan, Baku, May 30 / Trend E. Kosolapova /
Kazakhstan will establish international nuclear fuel bank approximately in 2013, Kazinform quoted the chairman of Kazakh Agency for Atomic Energy, Timur Zhantikin, as saying.
"Target date is scheduled for next year, probably summer-autumn. It will depend on the terms of our agreement with the IAEA," Zhantikin told journalists on the sidelines of the meeting of the CIS committee on the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes in Astana.
Zhantikin said Ulbinsk Metallurgical plant in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk becomes the first site for nuclear fuel in Kazakhstan. This plant requires minimal upgrading for this purpose.
"The infrastructure is quite developed, the stuff is quite experienced and qualified there. Kazakhstan has experience in this sphere. The plant worked, is working and continue working with such nuclear materials," Zhantikin said.
According to the chairman of Kazakh Agency for Atomic Energy, this project is aimed at nonproliferation of nuclear weapon in the world.
"There is no commercial component [in this project]... We are for peace, friendship and do not want the nuclear war to occur tomorrow," he said.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed to place international nuclear fuel bank in Kazakhstan in 2009. In 2011 IAEA approved this project. According to the project, roughly 60 tons of enriched uranium in gaseous form will be placed in Kazakhstan. The bank will not represent radiation hazard. The nuclear fuel bank will ensure control over access to nuclear fuel in the world. Thus it will decrease possibility of illegal nuclear weapons acquisition.