Vienna - Developing countries on Thursday blocked plans by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for nuclear fuel banks that aim to keep countries from acquiring sensitive nuclear technology by offering them alternatives. The Vienna-based agency and Western countries had hoped the IAEA's governing board would give the green light for fleshing out plans to sway countries to buy rather than make nuclear fuel, by offering an insurance in case their supply is cut off for political reasons.
A joint statement by the developing countries in the board said that "none of the proposals provide a proper assurance of supply of nuclear fuel."
This stance of the Group of 77 coalition of developing countries and the Non-Aligned Movement stalled efforts to make rapid progress on these concepts, which IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei first proposed in 2003.
The 35 members of the board agreed only that the nuclear agency "may continue its consultations and discussions" to further work on the fuel bank proposals, according to diplomats at the meeting.
The idea was to keep countries such as Iran from acquiring uranium enrichment and reprocessing technologies, which can be used not only for energy purposes, but also for making nuclear bomb material.
However, developing countries fear that such plans would pressure them to give up their right to peacefully using nuclear energy, even though the two proposals by the IAEA and by Russia stress this is not the case.
The plans "should not be designed in a way that discourages states from developing or expanding their capabilities in the nuclear fuel cycle," the developing countries said.
"As I said also in my statement, it has political, economic, security, technical elements that need thorough, in-depth study before any decision or recommendation could be made," Iran's Ambassador Ali Asghar Soltanieh told the German Press Agency dpa.
The IAEA tabled its fuel bank plan in May after enough pledges from countries had been collected for buying 60 to 90 tons of low- enriched uranium for the bank, enough to reload one 1000-megawatt reactor over three years.
The IAEA's stockpile is being funded by the US-based non-governmental Nuclear Threat Initiative, the European Union, Kuwait, Norway, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.
In parallel, ElBaradei wanted to move ahead on a proposal under which Russia would produce and stock 120 tons of low-enriched uranium, to be also dispensed by the IAEA if needed.
Over 60 countries, most of them in the developing world, have told the IAEA they might be interested in launching nuclear power programmes. Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are among this group.
In addition, Germany has tabled a plan to build an nuclear fuel production plant that would be under multinational control. The IAEA board has also not taken any action on this concept yet.
