A joint Kazakh-American announcement was made today during Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s visit to Washington to attend the Nuclear Security Summit.
The document highlights a set of concrete measures undertaken by two states for enhancing security of nuclear materials storage, as well as reconfirms their commitment to continuing practical collaboration in the field.
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Joint Announcement of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the United States of America
on Cooperation in the Sphere of Nonproliferation and Nuclear Security
The Republic of Kazakhstan and the United States of America have confirmed a shared commitment to implementing practical measures to strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime and enhance nuclear security.
The United States of America welcomes the Republic of Kazakhstan’s activities to strengthen nuclear security and implement decisions of the Washington, Seoul and Hague Nuclear Security Summits.
In this regard, the parties note with satisfaction that Kazakhstan has recently completed the conversion of the WWR-K research reactor at the Institute of Nuclear Physics (INP) to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel, following the previous conversion of the WWR-K critical assembly.
Moreover, the parties have announced the successful elimination of all fresh highly enriched uranium (HEU) from the WWR-K research reactor in Kazakhstan by down-blending this material at Kazakhstan’s nuclear fuel factory and emphasize the commitments of Kazakhstan to return the HEU spent fuel to the Russian Federation as soon as possible, thereby eliminating all HEU from the INP facility.
The parties welcome Kazakhstan’s continued commitment to the conversion of the IVG.1M and IGR research reactors to LEU fuel when an acceptable LEU fuel becomes available and to return the HEU spent fuel from these reactors to Russia once their conversion is completed.
The parties support the efforts made by industry to implement new technologies without using sensitive nuclear materials, where technically possible and economically acceptable.
Furthermore, the parties are pleased with the joint efforts made to establish the Nuclear Security Training Center (NSTC). The Center will offer training in the areas of nuclear nonproliferation; material protection, control, and accounting; and countering the illicit trafficking of nuclear and other radioactive materials. Construction on the NSTC began in late 2015 and the center will be operational by the end of calendar year 2016.
Kazakhstan and the United States further commit to working together on guard force training, inventory management systems, site and transportation security, cyber security, and cooperation to enhance the global nuclear detection architecture.
The Republic of Kazakhstan and the United States of America attach importance to the Nuclear Security Summit process, underlining the importance of continued efforts aimed at strengthening nuclear security as well as ongoing collaboration between the parties on issues related to strengthening the nuclear nonproliferation regime.