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Eurasia
September 1, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 19
refuse to make the move, fearing it might trigger bank runs and a total collapse in savings.
Iran’s mortgage market is another huge headache. It doesn’t meet the needs of contemporary Iranians in the slightest. The weak demand for property in the past few years demonstrates this. Tehran is thought to have half a million vacant properties. Builders and sellers are unwilling to drop asking prices which buyers can’t deal with due to the lack of available credit. Property owners would rather hold on to their assets in the hope that banking reform might eventually unlock lending liquidity.
During his re-election campaign, Rouhani re-
Kazakh uranium bank launches as last resort nuclear fuel supplier to the world
bne IntelliNews
Kazakhstan’s low-enriched uranium (LEU) bank launched at Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Oskemen, eastern Kazakhstan, on August 29.
In an attempt to secure and safeguard last resort fuel supplies for nuclear power stations around the world, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Kazakhstan in 2015 signed
an agreement to build the bank that will hold a reserve of LEU, the fundamental ingredient of nuclear fuel.
The bank is a physical reserve of up to 90 tonnes of LEU suitable for making fuel for a typical light water reactor. It has been clear from the begin- ning that the bank is to act as a last-in-the- chain supplier to IAEA member states and thus cannot distort the commercial market.
leased a set of “developmental economic poli- cies”. The 68-year-old Rouhani says the banking sector’s deficiencies are to be partly addressed by promoting the CBI’s supervisory role, improv- ing government fiscal discipline, bringing forward appropriate monetary policies and improving the business climate for lenders.
Reforming the banking sector to the point that it can be reconnected to the world financial system will require making Iranian banks adhere to the Basel III international capital adequacy standards, provide real transparency and regulatory compli- ance and introduce a regulated approach to their loan facilities.
A billet of enriched uranium recovered from scrap processed at the Y-12 National Security Complex, a US Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration facility located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
IAEA members will have the opportunity to "draw" low-enriched uranium at market prices if fuel supplies to a nuclear power plant are disrupted "due to exceptional circumstances." The goal is
to discourage nations from allocating time and money to nuclear-enrichment technologies de- velopment, which could lead to weapons-grade level uranium purification. At the same time, the bank is aimed at deterring countries from trying to acquire uranium illegally.
The bank will "provide countries investing in nuclear power an assured supply of fuel to use for peaceful purposes without incurring the sig- nificant costs of building their own enrichment facilities and without adding to global prolifera- tion risks," the US-based Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) said in a statement.