WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., introduced a bill creating global nuclear fuel centers as a way to sidestep potential plans to create nuclear weapons.
Lantos, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, announced he will introduce on Tuesday the International Nuclear Fuel for Peace and Nonproliferation Act. It would dedicate $50 million to the International Atomic Energy Agency to create nuclear fuel banks around the globe.
The move comes as more countries intend to build nuclear plants. Nuclear fuel is made by enriching uranium, the same process needed to make materials for bombs. Lantos' bill also comes as a backdrop to ongoing international debate over Iran's nuclear program. A U.S.-led coalition says it is for weapons purposes, but Tehran insists it is for the peaceful energy needs it has a sovereign right to meet.
"If Iran's nuclear program is truly peaceful, Tehran should welcome an opportunity to ensure a stable supply of nuclear fuel from an internationally-supported nuclear fuel bank located in a safe nation," Lantos said in a release. "If Iran is instead building a nuclear weapon, its nefarious intentions will be quickly exposed should it refuse to participate in this important project."
Iran says that as a signatory of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty it has the right to be energy self-sufficient, which includes making the fuel its nuclear plants need. Iran has no nuclear plants operating though a Russian-built reactor in Bushehr is due to come online this year. Its enrichment facility, however, is the part of the program that is controversial.
According to the Lantos release, the Act would establish an "independent international nuclear fuel bank that would guarantee reactor fuel to countries that forgo their own enrichment plants and are in good standing with existing international nuclear safeguards commitments, should there be a disruption in the world's supply of uranium fuel."
The $50 million in the bill matches the same amount dedicated in the U.S.-led Nuclear Threat Initiative. Both are reliant on a matching pledge from other sources.
