The government of Kazakhstan, aided by the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration, on Friday opened a nuclear security training center in the town of Alatau, the NNSA announced Monday.
The center is intended for the training of local and international personnel from various nuclear facilities and organizations in “advanced nuclear security topics,” including physical protection, nuclear material accounting and control, response forces, and secure transportation, according to an agency press release.
The NNSA noted that Kazakhstan announced at the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit its plan to open such a center, which the U.S. agency then helped design and construct. The NNSA is now helping the center’s staff develop a curriculum, it said.
Alatau, located in the Almaty region, hosts the country’s Institute of Nuclear Physics for nuclear physics and nuclear technology development.
Kazakhstan is also home to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s low-enriched uranium fuel bank, which is set to open this August as an LEU reserve that IAEA member states may use in the event that they cannot otherwise obtain nuclear fuel.
