Location of second Kazakh nuclear power plant announced

According to a resolution published on the Minister of Justice's website, a government decision was made on 26 January on the construction area, with the resolution entering into force on the day of its signing.

The village of Ulken, also in Zhambyl district, on the shore of Lake Balkhash, was earlier selected as the location for Kazakhstan's first nuclear power plant.

In June last year, Russia's Rosatom was selected as the leader of an international consortium to build Kazakhstan's first planned nuclear power plant, with China being lined up to build a second one. The Atomic Energy Agency of Kazakhstan had earlier held negotiations with leading global manufacturers and had drawn up a shortlist of potential suppliers: Rosatom with its VVER-1200 reactors, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) with its HPR-1000, France's EDF with its EPR1200 and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power with its APR-1000/APR-1400.

On 31 July, First Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar announced that CNNC would build Kazakhstan's second and third nuclear power plants, Kazinform News Agency reported.

Kazakhstan is the world's leading producer of uranium. Although it does not currently use nuclear energy, it is not without nuclear experience: it has three operating research reactors, and a Russian-designed BN-350 sodium-cooled fast reactor operated near Aktau for 26 years, until 1999.

Kazakhstan has been preparing for a nuclear power programme to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, diversify its energy mix and reduce CO2 emissions for some time. Kazakhstan Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP), a subsidiary of Kazakhstan's Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund JSC, was set up in 2014. As well as being designated as the owner/operator of a future plant, KNPP was tasked with pre-project work including a feasibility study to justify the need for nuclear power - carried out in 2018 - and locating a site.

As well as the proposed first nuclear power plant, there are also options for using small modular reactors to replace retiring coal plants in the years to come, with the government's target being for nuclear to produce a 5% share of the national generation mix by 2035.