Kazakh President to Meet IAEA Head to Sign Nuclear Fuel Bank Agreement

Nursultan Nazarbayev to meet with Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Yukiya Amano on Thursday.

ASTANA (Sputnik) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev to meet with Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano on Thursday, the day when the Nuclear Fuel Bank is due to be officially opened in Kazakhstan, Nazarbayev's press service said Tuesday.

"On this day, the President of Kazakhstan will host IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano and former US Senator Sam Nunn," the press service said in a statement

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, Kazakh Foreign Minister Erlan Idrisov announced the bank would be officially opened on August 27.

Several countries and The Nuclear Threat Initiative nonprofit organization allocated $150 million to build the LEU bank storing up to 90 metric tons of the radioactive substance at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant, according to the Kazakh Foreign Ministry.

In July, the P5+1 group comprising Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, France and Germany, reached a historic nuclear agreement with Iran, obliging the country to guarantee the peaceful nature of its nuclear activity in exchange for sanctions relief.

According to the Kazakh Foreign Ministry, the establishment of the Nuclear Fuel Bank will allow Iran to store its low-enriched fuel. The P5+1 group was also invited to visit the ceremony of signing the Nuclear Fuel Bank agreement.