Tokayev proposed to submit to a referendum the issue of building a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan

The President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev, in the course of his message to the people of the republic, proposed to submit to a national referendum the issue of building a nuclear power plant in the country.

“Construction or refusal to build a nuclear power plant is an extremely important issue regarding the future of our country. Therefore, I propose to submit it to a national referendum,” leads Tokayev’s words are his press service.

The head of Kazakhstan noted two main points of view on this issue. According to one of them, the republic, being the world’s largest producer of uranium, should have its own nuclear power plant, and according to another, “there are concerns about the safety of nuclear power plants.” A number of specialists propose to build nuclear power plants with small reactors, Tokayev added.

Another important issue is the strengthening of the defense industry of Kazakhstan, the president believes. “The most important task is to create a production cycle with a high degree of localization, which will reduce dependence on imports,” – said Tokaev.

In 2014 “Rosatomsigned a memorandum with Kazatomprom on the construction of a nuclear power plant. Preliminarily, one power unit with a VVER-type reactor with a capacity of 300 to 1200 MW was assumed. But the project never came to fruition, and in November 2016, Kazakh Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbaev said that the republic is not experiencing a shortage of energy capacity and is not going to build a nuclear power plant “at least” within the next seven years.

In 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with Tokayev, again proposed building a nuclear power plant using Russian technologies, and in September 2021, the leader of Kazakhstan instructed to work out “the possibility of developing safe nuclear energy in the republic” over the next year. At the end of the same year, Vedomosti wrote that two locations were considered as potential sites for the construction of nuclear power plants: the village of Ulken in the Alma-Ata region and the city of Kurchatov in the East Kazakhstan region.

The uranium reserves of Kazakhstan, according to the IAEA, exceed 900,000 tons, in which the country is second only to Australia. Overall, Australia, Kazakhstan and Canada account for two-thirds of the world’s uranium reserves.