Kuwait has become the latest nation to contribute funds to US billionaire Warren Buffet’s proposed multinational low-enriched uranium fuel bank. The country’s $10 million contribution has helped the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) reach its $100 million goal and then some.
NTI, of which Buffet is an advisor, is an international charitable organization formed with the intent to reduce worldwide threats from chemical, biological, and in this case, nuclear weapons. In 2006, Buffett donated $50 million to create a uranium fuel bank that would be under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The donation was made with two stipulations: 1) the IAEA receive an additional $100 million in funding (or equivalent value of uranium); and 2) the IAEA take action to approve establishment of the reserve.
The idea of creating an IAEA-monitored nuclear fuel bank that would allow nations with no enrichment facilities to purchase fuel to power their nuclear facilities has been around for a while now. The intent is to prevent countries like Iran from developing uranium-enrichment programs that could ultimately lead to atomic weapons. The NTI’s proposed fuel bank has garnered the support of the US ($50 million contribution), the European Union ($32 million), the United Arab Emirates ($10 million), and Norway ($5 million).
Principles for the Proposed Fuel Bank
IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei has put forward three key operating principles for the proposed nuclear fuel bank whose member nations agree to place their enrichment and reprocessing activities and facilities from under national to multilateral control.
First, the bank should be a non-political, non-discriminatory system and available to all nations in compliance with their safeguards obligations; secondly, any release of material should be determined by non-political criteria established in advance and applied objectively and consistently; and third, no nation should be required to give up its sovereignty under the Non-Proliferation Treaty regarding any parts of the nuclear fuel cycle.
Proposed Fuel Bank Faces Opposition
Opposition to the IAEA/NTI proposed fuel bank comes from nations without advanced nuclear programs. They worry it will place restrictions on their development of nuclear technology. Those in favour of the idea are nations with uranium-enrichment programs already in place and they see the bank as a way to block competitors from the market. “About a third of the 30 countries that run nuclear power stations produce their own enriched uranium,” reports Bloomberg’s Jonathon Tirone. “The rest rely on the market for supplies from Europe, Japan and Russia. Those that plan programs say the fuel bank threatens their right to enrich uranium, guaranteed under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.”
Tensions between IAEA member nations over Iran’s sovereign rights and the threat of nuclear weapons have been brewing for some time now. “It simply seems a real battlefield,” said Iran’s IAEA ambassador, Aliasghar Soltanieh. “Nuclear suppliers and nuclear recipients, nuclear-weapons states and non-nuclear-weapons states” are fighting over the agency’s future.
Russia Has Its Own Ideas
Last month, Russia submitted its own nuclear fuel bank proposal to the IAEA. The plan would allow for uranium enrichment in a shared facility in the province of Angarsk. Countries like Armenia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine are backing the project because it doesn’t call for abandoning their own uranium-enrichment activities.
The plan includes 120 tonnes of low-enriched uranium reserve for IAEA member states, provides assured export licenses, covers all long term costs, and allows the purchasing nations to pay market rates for any supply, reports Tirone.
Next Steps for IAEA/NTI Fuel Bank
Now that the funding objective for the IAEA/NTI fuel bank has been met, the next step is for the agency to decide whether to develop the plan further. The fuel bank board will be meeting in June to discuss ElBaradei’s proposed framework for the bank. “The proposed fuel bank is a bold agenda and it is clearly not going to happen overnight,” said ElBaradei. “But bold measures, including assurances of nuclear fuel supply and multinationalizing sensitive parts of the nuclear fuel cycle, are vital if we are to enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity throughout the world while curbing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and eliminating them altogether.”
