VIENNA —? State-run nuclear holding Rosatom said Monday that its agreement to create a uranium fuel bank with the International Atomic Energy Agency will help expand demand for nuclear power.
The 120-ton uranium stockpile “means countries will have supply assurance and reliability, which means the global market will become bigger,” Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko said at a press conference. “The supplied stock will be paid for at market price.”
The uranium, enough to load two nuclear reactors, will be stored under IAEA seal in the Russian city of Angarsk, 5,150 kilometers southeast of Moscow. The Vienna-based UN agency agreed to oversee the fuel bank on Nov. 27. The uranium has a market value of about $190 million, according to UX Consulting, a nuclear advisory company based in Roswell, Georgia.
Kiriyenko, who signed an accord creating the bank with IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano, said the amount of uranium kept at the facility wouldn't have any commercial impact. About 10,000 tons of uranium are sold annually, according to Rosatom.
An IAEA-monitored nuclear-fuel bank has been under discussion since the agency was founded in 1957 as a way to assure supplies of reactor-grade uranium. The IAEA has also promoted the establishment of such a bank to dissuade countries such as Iran from setting up uranium programs that could be used to increase enrichment to the level required for atomic weapons.
The bank will allow countries that join the facility to obtain uranium from the stockpile, supplied entirely by Russia, if commercial uranium markets are frozen for political reasons. The IAEA will be tasked with determining whether the uranium shipment is warranted.