Fuel bank

The proposal to set up a guaranteed reserve of low enriched uranium (fuel bank) at the SC IUEC (GC(51)/OR.3) was announced by Director General of SC Rosatom Sergey Kiriyenko at the 51-st General Conference of the IAEA in response to the initiative voiced by IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei concerning the establishing of a nuclear material bank under the auspices of the Agency.

The goal of this proposal was to develop a mechanism guaranteeing supplies, which is accessible to all countries which comply with requirements of the nuclear nonproliferation regime and supplies to which have been terminated due to reasons other than technical or commercial ones, i.e. where such a state have encountered insuperable difficulties of a political nature in obtaining uranium.

The nuclear materials in the fuel bank should be subject to the IAEA safeguards.

An outline of the Russian proposal was brought to the IAEA Board of Governors in March 2009. (INFCIRC/748).

The proposal to establish a guaranteed reserve of low enriched uranium in Angarsk as the first step mechanism of guaranteed fuel supplies was outlined in the Communication of the Permanent Missions of the Russian Federation and the United States of America regarding a Joint Statement on Multilateral Nuclear Fuel Assurances (INFCIRC/776).

In November 2009, a review of the proposals on establishing a guaranteed reserve resulted in the IAEA Board of Governors’ authorizing the Agency Director General to conclude the Agreement with the Russian Federation to establish a reserve of LEU (GOV/2009/81).

On March, 29th, 2010 in Vienna the General Director of the State corporation «Rosatom» Sergey Kirienko and the IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano have signed the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the IAEA to set up the guaranteed reserve on the territory of Russia and supply of low enriched uranium from the reserve to IAEA for its Member States.

The IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano and the Director General of International Uranium Enrichment Center (SC «IUEC») Alexey Lebedev have signed the Contract between SC «IUEC» and IAEA on execution of specific technical and commercial aspects of the Agreement, according to which SC «IUEC» is to provide the supply of low enriched uranium from the guaranteed reserve of IAEA.

Since July, 01st, 2010 storage facilities of the International Uranium Enrichment Centre are chosen IAEA for application of Agency safeguards.

On November, 28th, 2010 a material of the guaranteed reserve in the full volume defined by the Agreement (more than 120 tons) has been loaded to the SC «IUEC» storage facilities.

On December, 17th, 2010 the first inspection of IAEA at the SC «IUEC» storage facilities has been finished.

Russia would supply low enriched uranium from the guaranteed reserve at the IAEA Director General’s request and the IAEA would provide this material to a country suffering supplies interruption due to political force majeure.

Interaction Scheme of the Parties:


  

Amount of reserve
more than 120 tU LEU as uranium hexafluoride (UF6)
Enrichment
from 2.00% up to 4.95%;
not less than one third of the reserve (40 tU) with an enrichment of 4.95%
Location
JSC IUEC storage sites within the Angarsk Electrolysis Chemical Complex
Financing
the guaranteed reserve is created and maintained at the expense of the Russian Federation
Selling price
based on spot market prices published by internationally acknowledged companies
JSC IUEC functions
storage, maintenance and sales of LEU from the guaranteed reserve

 

 

 



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