Construction Of LEU Bank On Schedule, Shipments Expected In 2018, Says Amano

12 Jun (NucNet): Construction of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) low-enriched uranium (LEU) bank in Kazakhstan is on schedule, with all LEU expected to be delivered to the facility in 2018, IAEA director-general Yukiya Amano said in a statement to the organisation’s board of governors on 12 June 2017. Mr Amano said he plans to attend the inauguration of the facility at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Oskemen, northeast Kazakhstan, in August 2017. In August 2015, the IAEA and Kazakhstan signed a legal framework agreement for the establishment of the LEU bank. The bank will be a physical reserve of up to 90 tonnes of LEU and is intended to provide IAEA member states with confidence in a stable and predictable supply of fuel even if other supply mechanisms are disrupted. Construction formally began in August 2016. The IAEA recently signed agreements with China and Russia to secure LEU transit through their territories in support of the LEU bank project.