The LEU bank will be administered by the IAEA and is developed to assure the organization’s member countries accessibility to a safe and stable supply of LEU, in cases where it is not available on the commercial market or otherwise. It is also an important step in supporting nuclear non-proliferation; it will enable and encourage peaceful uses of nuclear energy, as states will not have to develop their own enrichment capacities, with the risk of misuse.
The facilities are expected to be up and running by 2017.
Norway is one of the donor countries for the project, along with the EU, the US, Kuwait, and the UAE, in addition to Kazakhstan. The Embassy was represented at the signing ceremony.