Kazakhstan offers to host nuclear fuel bank

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Kazakhstan offered Monday to host an international nuclear fuel bank, and Iran's leader said he supported the idea. The United States initiated the project and allocated $50 million toward it in 2007. Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev said Monday that his Central Asian country would be an appropriate place for such a depository, as it was giving up its own Soviet-era nuclear arsenal. If created, the global fuel bank would undermine claims by Iran and other states that they need to develop their own fuel enrichment programs. Nevertheless, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during a two-day visit to Kazakhstan that he supported the project.

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