Fuel Assurances: IAEA Fuel Bank

International fuel banks have been proposed as techniques to limit the proliferation risks inherent in enrichment technologies since the dawn of the nuclear age, but they have yet to be implemented. At a September 2006 conference on multilateral approaches to the nuclear fuel cycle, NTI Co- Chairman Sam Nunn proposed the creation of an international fuel bank, owned and operated by the International Atomic Energy Agency, to serve as a last-resort assurance of nuclear fuel supply for nations choosing to rely on the international fuel market and who therefore do not have domestic enrichment facilities. NTI offered to contribute $50 million toward the creation of such a fuel bank, conditional on commitments from member states to provide an additional $100 million and on the IAEA establishing the bank. Since that offer, the US Government has also committed $50 million, and other pledges have been made as well. This paper will present the current state of the international discussion and the role fuel banks can play in a suite of fuel assurance mechanisms.