Efforts by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to keep countries from acquiring nuclear technology by offering them alternatives got a boost last week as three plans for nuclear fuel banks and multinational fuel factories were tabled. The latest proposal was put forward by Germany on Friday.

The text foresees the creation of an internationally-governed nuclear fuel production plant. Two additional, complementary, proposals for Russian and IAEA fuel banks to provide supply of last resort are also to be considered by the 35 countries on the IAEA’s governing board in June. The ideas were proposed by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei in 2003 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.

But diplomats say the Vienna-based nuclear agency is split on the issue between those countries that already hold the technology, and sceptical countries such as Egypt, Argentina and Brazil, many of them developing economies. “In the end, these countries are afraid they will lose all access to enrichment and reprocessing technology,” Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) quoted a European diplomat as saying. However, the tabled plans said that governments were free to develop nuclear programmes even if they made use of these supply mechanisms.

Germany said its plan for a multinational plant or plants “provides States with a maximum of security of supply without the cost, unpredictability and proliferation risk involved in creating national enrichment capabilities.” Production is to be located in an extraterritorial site in a yet- to-be specified country, making material which then could be used by fuel banks such as the one to be operated by the IAEA. With the banks, the idea is to sway countries to buy nuclear fuel from abroad, by providing them with a backup mechanism of a fuel bank, in case their supplier country cuts off shipments for political reasons.

Earlier last week, the IAEA tabled its fuel bank plan after enough pledges had been collected for buying 60 to 90 tonnes of low-enriched uranium for the bank, enough to reload one 1000-megawatt reactor over three years. The IAEA’s stockpile is being co-funded by the US-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, which pledged USD 50 million on the condition that other countries come up with an additional USD 100 million. The European Union, Kuwait, Norway, the United Arab Emirates and the United States reached the target in early March. Kazakhstan informed the IAEA on May 18 that it would consider hosting the physical stockpile for the fuel bank

. In parallel, ElBaradei wants the IAEA board to consider a proposal under which Russia would produce and stock 120 tons of low-enriched uranium, which the nuclear agency would be able to dispense in a way similar to the fuel bank model. Russia has indicated it could have the amount ready in a couple of years. Over 60 countries, most of them in the developing world, have told the IAEA they might be interested in launching nuclear power programmes. The United Arab Emirates plan to have three power plants operating by 2020, and a nuclear cooperation agreement with the US was greenlighted by President Barack Obama on May 21. Kuwait is considering to use nuclear power for energy and water desalination.