"The bank’s establishment in Ust-Kamenogorsk, according to the IAEA and Kazakhstan’s experts, does not pose any threats to the environment and the population of the region," the diplomat said, quoted by Novosti-Kazakhstan news agency.
He added that LEU is not useful to terrorists, since it cannot be used to produce nuclear weapons without complex and expensive infrastructure and enrichment technology.
A number of countries and The Nuclear Threat Initiative nonprofit organization have allocated $150 million to build an LEU bank of up to 90 metric tons at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in the country’s northeast, according to the Kazakh Foreign Ministry.
A final agreement on the establishment of the IAEA LEU bank in Kazakhstan is expected to be signed in August.
