ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP): A dozen activists who planned to protest the Kazakh president's proposal to host an international nuclear fuel bank were detained hours before the demonstration was to start on Tuesday, a spokesman for one of their organizations said.

Supporters of an international nuclear repository, including the United States, say it would boost global security by dissuading countries from developing their own fuel-production facilities. Iran's development of uranium-enrichment facilities is seen by critics as a precursor to developing nuclear weapons.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev this month offered Kazakhstan as the location for the fuel bank. Under the proposal, Kazakhstan would store and supply nuclear fuel to interested countries under the supervision of the United Nation's International Atomic Energy Agency.

Activists from an array of groups planned to protest the offer Tuesday, but 12 were arrested, said Abzhan Makhambet, a spokesman for the Ar.Rukh.Khak organization.

Opponents of the proposal said in a statement that putting the facility in a country with limited freedom of information posed a security risk to Kazakhstan's population.

Critics of the proposal also argue that Kazakhstan cannot guarantee the security of the proposed site.

``The government will be unable to ensure the safety of the bank from fires, theft and other unexpected circumstances outside its control,'' the statement said.

Nuclear issues are sensitive in this former Soviet republic, which was the site of hundreds of atomic tests between 1949 and 1989. Nuclear explosions at the Semipalatinsk testing site have caused an enduring legacy of health and environmental problems.

Kazakhstan inherited the world's fourth-largest nuclear arsenal amid the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, but it quickly sought international assistance in removing the weapons. Nazarbayev says his country's nonproliferation record makes it a suitable site for the international nuclear fuel bank.