Conference urges more dialogue on nuclear fuel supply assurances

Sep 21, 2006, 17:34 GMT

Vienna ­ Countries that currently have no domestic nuclear fuel cycle must become more involved in discussions with the world's nuclear powers about how they gain assurances on fuel supply, an international conference in Vienna concluded Thursday.

'There must be a more purposeful, structured engagement of states who have not yet developed indigenous fuel cycle capabilities,' said Charles Curtis, president of the US-based Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), who chaired the conference.

The two-and-a-half-day event took place on the sidelines of the IAEA General Conference.

The meeting aimed to solve international differences over how to provide assurances of nuclear fuel supplies to countries without nuclear technology.

With nuclear energy currently undergoing a renaissance fears abound that, with growing demand for nuclear fuel, sensitive nuclear technologies may also be spread.

Uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing, key technologies for producing reactor fuel, can also be employed to produce material for nuclear weapons.

As a possible first step towards assuring supply for non-nuclear countries, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei has proposed an IAEA-administered 'fuel bank.'

The idea involves countries putting aside material to be used as a back-up in case a state is denied fuel on the market.

A similar concept, spearheaded by the US, caused significant consternation among other IAEA members when launched in late May 2006.

That proposal would require any would-be recipients of nuclear fuel to forgo pursuing nuclear fuel cycle technology.

Referring to that proposal, Curtis said a change in wording might be necessary for it to achieve support.

'We have to make clear the explicit and implicit conditionality of entitlement and benefits of these various proposals,' he told the press, warning against 'disincentives' or overly dissuasive language.

Russia announced earlier this week it would be ready as of next year to begin enriching uranium for countries wanting to develop civilian atomic energy.

'We are convinced that such centres should be established elsewhere in the world. The more such centres we have in the world the better,' Sergei Kirienko, head of the Russian Atomic Energy Agency told reporters Tuesday.

The conference ended by asking member states to 'mature' their proposals on fuel supply assurances.