Under normal circumstances, Member States obtain LEU from the open market, State-to-State arrangements or other means.
If, however, an IAEA Member State is unable to obtain LEU on its own, it can request from the IAEA a supply from the IAEA LEU Bank as a mechanism of last resort. The IAEA Director General will determine whether the request meets the criteria approved by the IAEA Board of Governors and will keep the Board informed throughout the process.
The criteria to receive LEU from the IAEA LEU Bank are:
- the supply of LEU to a nuclear power plant is disrupted due to exceptional circumstances impacting availability and/or transfer;
- the Member State is unable to secure LEU from the commercial market, State-to-State arrangements, or by any other such means;
- the IAEA has drawn the conclusion in the most recent Safeguards Implementation Report for the Member State that there has been no diversion of declared nuclear material;
- there are no issues relating to safeguards implementation in that Member State under consideration by the IAEA Board of Governors; and
- the Member State has in place a comprehensive safeguards agreement with the IAEA pursuant to which safeguards are to be applied to the LEU that is supplied through the IAEA LEU Bank.
The Member State must agree to a supply agreement with the IAEA and pay the full cost to re-stock the LEU stored in the Bank.