Uranium bank deposit imminent, Moscow says

PARIS, March 9 (UPI) -- A reserve of low-enriched uranium will be deposited into an international nuclear fuel bank by the end of the year, Russian executives said in Paris.

Moscow in 2007 proposed the creation of a nuclear fuel bank holding low-enriched uranium reserves at a facility in Angarsk in central Russia. The reserves could give countries, including Iran, access to fuel for civilian nuclear power without the need for domestic enrichment.

Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Russia's state-run nuclear power corporation Rosatom, told an international nuclear conference in Paris that deposits could enter the bank at the end of the year, Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti reports.

He added the reserves in the international bank would be available to "to any International Atomic Energy Agency-member country that honors its non-proliferation commitments."

The IAEA approved the establishment of the nuclear fuel bank in November. Kiriyenko said a comprehensive agreement between Moscow and the IAEA board of governors was expected as early as April.