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In Kazakstan this week, the international atomic energy agency is opening a new facility that will serve as a bank for low enriched uranium.\\xa0

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This facility is known as the LEU fuel bank and its opening is the result of over a decade of work by my guest Senator Sam Nunn.\\xa0

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Now the idea behind the, bank which Senator Nunn explains in detail is basically this. countries that want to use civilian nuclear power must either build their own enrichment facilities, or must purchase enriched uranium on the open market. the concern with the former is that facilities that enrich uranium for civilian purposes could also be used to enrich uranium for a nuclear bomb. The bank is basically an insurance policy to dissuade countries from wanting to build their own enrichment facilities because if for some reason the market is disrupted and supplies cut off, the county can get their fuel from this bank, which stores enough fuel to power a mid sized city for three years.\\xa0

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Senator Nunn is a former US senator who is co-chair of the NGO the Nuclear Threat Initiative. For years, the Nuclear Threat Initiative has been working behind the scenes to set up this bank and they got a big boost when Warren Buffet pledged 50 million to the cause. \\xa0And in this episode Senator Nunn tells the story behind the LEU bank and why its advent is an important boon for international security and non-proliferation.

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