Guaranteed Stock

On December 10th, Bank of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA’s LEU Bank), located on the territory of the Ulba Metallurgical Plant (UMP), carried out the second and final supply of low-enriched uranium in the form of uranium hexafluoride (HFC) from NAC Kazatomprom JSC. Therefore, the IAEA Bank of LEU project has moved from the stages of creation, construction and preparation for deployment to the operational phase.

The first batch was delivered on October 17th from the French company Orano Cycle. In total, the Bank has about 90 tons of low-enriched uranium, which does not exceed 10 percent of the amount of uranium previously stored at UMP as its own inventories.

LEU in the form of uranium hexafluoride is the feedstock for the manufacture of fuel for a standard light-water reactor. HFCs are stored in solid state in sealed steel cylinders made of high tensile steel. These are special certified containers that pass rigorous tests and comply with all international safety standards. The safety of the storage process is ensured by a number of organizational and technical measures that exclude violation of the tightness of cylinders.

LEU Bank is a reserve of low enriched uranium controlled by the IAEA. The IAEA LEU Bank was created to have a guaranteed stock of raw materials for the production of nuclear fuel in individual IAEA Member States. In the event of interruptions in the supply of these raw materials, such countries may take advantage of the LEU stock held by the Bank.

Security guarantees

UMP guarantees the safety of storage of LEU, and the IAEA is responsible for its transportation. Containers for the storage of LEU completely eliminate the harmful effects on the environment, are able to withstand large mechanical loads and are designed for a long period of operation.
 

It is no coincidence that the IAEA chose the Ulba Metallurgical Plant as the place for the Bank. The company has over 45 years of experience working with uranium hexafluoride. It has all the necessary infrastructure, qualified personnel, transport accessibility, and a reliable physical protection system. Bank protection is carried out by a specialized state structure.
Bank building was built taking into account the requirements of the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the IAEA guidance documents, it is resistant to possible earthquakes and provided with all necessary safety and control systems. When accepting the material, UMP experts carried out all the necessary measurements in accordance with international and Kazakhstan standards. The radiation background was also monitored, which at the border of the LEU Bank did not change and remained at the level of the natural background after loading the material. IAEA experts monitored the entire process of the safe placement of materials.

Important step

Placing the IAEA LEU Bank on the territory of our country will ensure mutually beneficial cooperation between Kazakhstan and the IAEA. The creation of the LEU bank was an important step in nuclear non-proliferation, which makes Kazakhstan a prominent participant in the peace initiative.

  • Ulba Metallurgical Plant JSC is one of the world's recognized producers of uranium, beryllium, tantalum and niobium products for the needs of nuclear energy, electronic, metallurgical industry and other fields of activity. The enterprise is a part of the National Atomic Company “Kazatomprom”.
  • Kazatomprom is the largest uranium producer in the world with natural uranium production in proportion to the company's participation shares in the amount of about 23% of the total world primary uranium production in 2018. The group has the largest uranium reserve base in the industry. Kazatomprom, together with subsidiaries, affiliates and joint organizations, is developing 26 deposits combined into 13 uranium mining enterprises. All uranium mining enterprises are located on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan and apply the technology of underground well leaching, paying particular attention to best practices and means of monitoring health, industrial safety and the environment.

Securities of Kazatomprom are listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange of the Astana International Financial Center. Kazatomprom is the National Atomic Company of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and the main customers of the group are operators of nuclear generating capacities, and the main export markets for products are China, South and East Asia, North America and Europe. Group sells uranium and uranium products under long-term and short-term contracts, as well as in the spot market, directly from its corporate center in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, as well as through a trading subsidiary Trading House KazakAtom (TNK) in Switzerland.

More detailed information is available on the Internet resource http://www.kazatomprom.kz
Press Service of JSC “UMP”