Kazakhstan Signs IAEA Additional Protocol

Kazakhstan signed an additional protocol to its International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards agreement Feb. 6, giving the IAEA a green light to conduct more intrusive monitoring of the former Soviet republic’s nuclear activities.

Kazakhstan inherited the world’s fourth-largest nuclear weapons arsenal after the Soviet Union collapsed. In December 1993, the country decided to terminate its nuclear program and join the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear state.