(Adds details in paragraph 5)
ASTANA, April 6 (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan has offered the
UN nuclear watchdog its territory to set up a nuclear fuel
bank, the president said on Monday at a joint press conference
with Iran's leader.
"If a nuclear fuel bank is created for the nuclear power
industry, Kazakhstan could consider the possibility of placing
it on our territory, as a country that signed the
Non-Proliferation Treaty and voluntarily gave up nuclear
weapons," Nursultan Nazarbayev said.
In September 2008, the United States said it would
allocate $50 million to create a nuclear fuel bank under the
International Atomic Energy Agency, and called on all countries
to invest funds for the purpose.
Some countries have already made the decision to allocate
$5-10 million for this task.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he backed
Nazarbayev's idea, saying: "We believe Nazarbayev's proposal to
create a nuclear fuel bank in Kazakhstan is a very good
proposal."
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