The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Russia signed an agreement on Monday to set up a centre in Siberia that will sell nuclear fuel to countries that want it, the agency said.
IAEA chief Yukiya Amano signed the agreement with Sergei Kiriyenko, head of Russian state-owned nuclear giant Rosatom, allowing countries to access nuclear fuel under IAEA supervision and in respect of non-proliferation treaties.
The centre will be in Angarsk, where Russia and Kazakhstan already have a uranium enrichment facility since 2007. The facility provides nuclear fuel to Armenia and Ukraine, Kiriyenko said at a press conference in Vienna.
The site will eventually hold 120 tons of low-enriched uranium.
"We hope to put in place IAEA security rules by the summer and to have 30 percent of the stock available by the end of the year," Kiriyenko said.
Countries will have to put in a formal request to the IAEA to be transmitted to Russia. Moscow will then deliver the enriched nuclear fuel.
Russia will take on the costs of setting up the nuclear fuel reserve.
Kiriyenko stressed that the reserve should only be used in cases of urgent need and when there are political difficulties in obtaining nuclear fuel.
The Russian initiative was approved in November by the 35-member governing council of the IAEA, supported by the leading nuclear powers of the world.
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