During the campaign, President Obama said he would "work with other interested governments to establish a new international nuclear energy architecture -- including an international nuclear fuel bank, international nuclear fuel cycle centers, and reliable fuel supply assurances - to meet growing demands for nuclear power without contributing to the proliferation of nuclear materials and fuel production facilities."

Nuclear fuel banks are meant to encourage countries that don't have reliable supplies of enriched uranium and plutonium to get nuclear materials from other nations rather than building their own processing centers, said Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the Arms Control Association. This keeps the number of countries that have the ability to enrich uranium or re-purpose plutonium for making nuclear weapons relatively low, preventing proliferation.



Two steps towards a nuclear fuel bank were taken in 2009. In November, with American backing, the International Atomic Energy Agency approved the world's first fuel bank: a reserve of 120 tons of low-enriched uranium (which isn't strong enough to be used in weapons) will be stored in the Siberian city of Angarsk. The IAEA will supervise the bank.



And while lots of people know Warren Buffett has been advising Obama on economic issues, his role in this promise has been lower-profile. In 2006, Buffett donated $50 million to the Nuclear Threat Initiative. The money would be used to fund an IAEA-supervised fuel bank, provided the world's governments agreed to spend $100 million on the project. This year, for the first time, that milestone was reached, with the United States contributing $50 million and $10 million from Kuwait putting the project over the top. The IAEA would use the money to purchase low-enriched uranium, which it could then sell to its members at market prices. The agency would act as a "seller of last resort," calming developing nations who fear their fuel supplies could be cut off for political reasons, and making them less likely to build their own plants.



But Charles Ferguson, a nuclear policy expert and president of the Federation of American Scientists, said the $150 million would only supply "two or three fuel loads," or enough for three or four years.



It's worth noting Ferguson is skeptical of fuel banks in general: "Iran isn't going to be swayed [from developing their own facilities] by these fuel cycle proposals." Developing nations, including India and Egypt, are afraid the banks could end up limiting their abilities to set up fuel programs.



All in all, progress has been made during Obama's first year toward developing nuclear fuel banks, but neither is operational yet, and it's unclear if they'll have any significant impact. We rate this promise In The Works.