The main proliferation threat posed by Kyrgyzstan is its location near countries that possess nuclear materials, namely Russia and Kazakhstan, and countries to its south that are allegedly seeking nuclear materials.[1]
From the 1950s to the 1990s, the Kara-Balta Ore Mining Combine in northern Kyrgyzstan processed uranium concentrate from deposits in both Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan for use in the Soviet Union's military and civilian nuclear industries.[2] As of 2005, Kara-Balta had ceased processing Kazakhstani uranium concentrate into U3O8. Bishkek has since tried unsuccessfully to sell the plant to private investors. Uranium extraction in Kyrgyzstan itself has ceased.
Radioactive waste in uranium tailings ponds in Kyrgyzstan poses a significant health threat. The European Union, Russia, and the United States have provided foreign assistance to help Kyrgyzstan come up with solutions to its uranium waste problem. Russia has begun allocating funds to Kyrgyzstan for the rehabilitation of so-called tailing dumps of uranium wastes, according to head of Russia's Rosatom, Sergey Kiriyenko on 12 October, 2007.
Kyrgyzstan has had an IAEA safeguards agreement in place since March 18, 1998. For additional information on Bishkek's participation in international agreements, see the Inventory of International Organizations and Regimes.
The foreign ministers of the five Central Asian States--Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan--signed a treaty establishing a Central Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone (CANWFZ) on September 8, 2006. Kyrgyzstan was the first country to ratify the Treaty on 22 March 2007.
Key Sources:
[1] Cassady B. Craft, Suzette R. Grillot, Liam Anderson, "The Dangerous Ground: Nonproliferation Export-Control Development in the Southern Tier of the Former Soviet Union," Problems of Post-Communism, Volume 47, Number 6, November/December 2000, pp. 39-51.
[2] Dmitriy Glumskov, "Kyrgyzskiy gornorudnyy kombinat budet uchastvovat v razrabotke uranovogo mestorozhdeniya "Zarechnoye" v Zhambylskoy oblasti," Panorama online edition, www.panorama.kz, No. 31, August 2000.
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Updated January 2009 |
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