ASTANA (Sputnik) – Kazakhstan has signed an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on establishing a low-enriched uranium bank in the country, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported on Thursday.
The deal was signed on Thursday morning by Kazakh Foreign Minister Erlan Idrisov and IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana.
In June, the IAEA passed and approved an agreement on establishing the bank in Kazakhstan to provide IAEA member-states with low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel reserves. The following month, Idrisov announced the bank would be officially opened on August 27.
Several countries and The Nuclear Threat Initiative nonprofit organization have allocated $150 million to build the LEU bank, which will store up to 90 metric tons of the radioactive substance at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant, according to the Kazakh Foreign Ministry.