The Uranium (LEU) fuel bank is a physical reserve of up to 90 metric tons low enriched uranium (LEU) suitable to make fuel for a typical light water reactor, which is the most widely used type of nuclear power reactor worldwide. Low-enriched uranium (LEU) has a lower than 20% concentration of Uranium-235 or ( LEU is the basic ingredient to fabricate nuclear fuel). It's made by enriching naturally occurring uranium to improve its ability to produce energy. Enrichment increased the concentration of atoms that can be split to produce heat; heat in turn is used to genrrate electricity and it will be stored in the uranium fuel Bank will be enriched up to 4.95%, suitable to make fuel for a typical light water reactor. LEU can safely stored and transported in strong steel sylinders. it's does not deteriorate and can be safely strored for many years.
The world suffers no shortage of uranium, the raw material for nuclear energy and nuclear wapons. the Amount of electricity genreated globally by nuclear power peaked amount a decade ago. And no reactors have ever been shut down of lack of fuel. Investers lile Warren Buffett has put the first $50m behind a $150m project on August 2015 to build a uranium bank in Kazakhstan, the world's bigest producer of mineral. it sounds like something a Bond villain might dream up, rather than a philanthropic American billionaie. ThoughThere has been a nuclear non-proliferation treaty since 1970, there is nothing to stop countaries enriching uranium for civilian purposes, But from North Korea to Iran, questions are constantly asked about whether uranium-enrichment facilities built ostensibly to produce low- enriched uranium (LEU) for nuclear power are in fact thinly disguised bomb-making kits- enabling the fuel to be spun into the more highly enriched forms used in nuclear weapons. for two decades the world has agonised over whether Iran's centrifuges were producing more of the uranium-235 isotope than was needed for nuclear power, posing a threat to the world. LEU is available on the open market, but if supply unexpectedly dries up, the bank in Kazakhstan can act as a lender of last resort. To ensure the fule's safety and that it is distributed fairly when the bank opens in 2017, the bank will be owned by the international Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a global nuclear watchdog based in Vienna, but opreated by kazakhstan. its uranium will be available only to IAEA members, and will contain 90 tonnes of LEU rather than the "weapons-grade" form. That is enough to power a 1,000-megawatt reactor taht could power a large city for three years. There is some symbolism to the bank being in Kazakhstan. The country says it was the site of 45 devastating nuclear tests when part of the former Soviet Union. it gave up its own nucler srsenal in 2001, yet remains the world largest uranium producer. The bank will be located in the northeastern city of Oskemen, a centre for nuclear fuel production for 60 years.
No doubt, excuses to to build more centrifuges will persist. Many countries ascribe international prestige to having uranium-enrichment facilities. Some, like Japan, have the capacity quickly to turn LEU into weapons-grade materal. Rogue nations rail at unfairness of being left out the club of nuclear-weapon states. Moreover, no nuclear-power provider will need the bank's services imminently; the World Nuclear Association says uranium supply has expanded significantly in the past decade, prices have slumped, and reactors have become more efficient. yet any country enbrking on a civilian nuclear programme need only look at Russia's stranglehold over gas supplies to Western Europe to appreciate the imporrtance of having a secure LEU backstop. If the Kazakh bank helps to limit the number of centrifuges spinning around the world, it may be one of Mr Buffett's best investment yet.
