Fully stocked and operational. IAEA LEU Bank provides reserve of main ingredient of nuclear fuel (Arabic Edition)

The IAEA's Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) Bank is now fully stocked and operational. Owned by the IAEA and hosted by Kazakhstan, the IAEA LEU Bank aims to provide assurance to countries and to serve as a mechanism of last resort in case the supply of LEU to a nuclear power plant is disrupted due to exceptional circumstances and a Member State is unable to secure LEU from the commercial market or by any other means. LEU is the basic ingredient in the fabrication of nuclear fuel. It is made by enriching naturally occurring uranium to make it suitable for energy production. In October and December 2019, shipments of LEU arrived at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant (UMP) in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan. These shipments completed the LEU Bank's stock of 90 tonnes of LEU, typically sufficient for one fuel load of a 1000 megawatt (MWe) Light Water Reactor's core or three core reloads.