IAEA and Russia to ink nuclear fuel reserve deal on Monday

Mar 26, 2010, 12:37 GMT

Vienna - An international reserve of nuclear fuel aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons is scheduled to be set up next week between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Russia, the IAEA confirmed Friday.

Since 2003, the IAEA had advocated mechanisms to ensure that countries have guaranteed access to nuclear reactor fuel, to keep them from going the path of Iran and acquire their own fuel-making technology.

Such know-how can be used not only to make reactor fuel, but also to produce nuclear bomb material.

On Monday, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano and the head of Russia's nuclear state corporation ROSATOM, Sergei Kirienko, are scheduled to sign the agreement that would set up a reserve of low-enriched uranium and would essentially work like an insurance:

If a supplier country stops shipments for political reasons, the recipient country has the right to ask for nuclear fuel from the bank that is established on Russian soil.

The decision to draw from the bank would be taken by the IAEA director general.

Developing country members of the Vienna-based nuclear agency had long blocked the establishment of the bank, as they fear that it could limit their right to acquire peaceful nuclear technology.