This month
Mongolia and the United States will hold an experts-level meeting on
Cooperation in the Field of Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy.  This meeting
will take place in Ulaanbaatar August 22-23, 2012.  This is the second
experts-level meeting held under the auspices of the Memorandum of
Understanding between the Mongolia and the United States on Cooperation in the
Field of Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy, signed in September 2010.  The
first meeting took place last year in the United States.  Discussion
topics will include human resource and infrastructure development, nuclear
safety and regulatory issues, nuclear liability, and nonproliferation. 

Mongolia and
the United States face common challenges, such as growing energy demand,
long-term energy supply security, and climate change. 

These
challenges, in combination with Mongolia’s significant uranium resources,
ambitious plans for its uranium industry, and a strong commitment to being a
nuclear weapons-free state, are leading to increased consideration of renewable
and clean forms of energy. 

Rumors have
occasionally surfaced that the U.S. and Mongolia are in discussions about the
establishment of a storage facility to accept foreign spent nuclear fuel or
nuclear waste.  This is not correct.  The United States fully
respects that Mongolians are making sovereign decisions about their activities
in the nuclear field as they deem necessary, and we stand ready to collaborate
with and support them where our interests converge.  This experts-based meeting
underscores this close and mutually reinforcing relationship on energy matters
between the United States and Mongolia.