Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom and state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation have been tapped to lead separate consortiums to build the first nuclear power plants in Kazakhstan, the country’s atomic energy agency said on Saturday.
The oil- and gas-rich nation of 20 million has not had any nuclear power generation capacity since 1999, when the BN-350 reactor on the shores of the Caspian Sea was decommissioned.
Kazakhstan is one of the world’s biggest uranium producers but currently relies mostly on coal-powered plants for its electricity, supplemented by some hydroelectric plants and the growing renewable energy sector.
In October, Kazakhstan voted in a referendum, backed by its president, in favour of constructing nuclear power plants. The country says it plans to have 2.4 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2035.
In a statement on Saturday, the Kazakh atomic energy agency, created this March, called Rosatom’s proposal “the most optimal and advantageous”, and said work has begun to attract state export financing from Russia.
