Kazakh offer to host nuclear fuel bank

ASTANA, Kazakhstan, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Kazakhstan is willing to host an international nuclear fuel bank under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.

KazInform news agency reported Saturday that Kazakh Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev made the offer at a general political discussion at the U.N. General Assembly, commenting that such a repository could be useful in promoting an international regime of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Saudabayev said: "The coming into force of the agreement on nuclear free zone in our region in March this year has become a weighty contribution of Kazakhstan and the Central Asian countries to the implementation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The zone may play a great practical role in preventing the uncontrolled proliferation of nuclear materials and the fight against terrorism."

The foreign minister added that his country supported Washington's initiative to have a global summit on nuclear security in 2010, pointing out Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's Aug. 29 announcement proclaiming it an international day of peace and nuclear weapons free world.

Saudabayev said: "(For Kazakhstan) the date has a deep symbolic meaning. The Soviet Union conducted the first test of nuclear weapon in the Semipalatinsk ground in 1949. On the day in 1991, the test ground was closed forever. We hope that the General Assembly will support the initiative."