Russian energy giant Rosatom to build Kazakhstan’s first nuclear plant near Balkhash Lake

An aerial view shows the village of Ulken (foreground) and the proposed nuclear power plant site near in the village of Ulken, located on the shores of Lake Balkhash, about 400 kilometres north of Almaty, on September 22, 2024, the place where the first country's nuclear power plant is planned to be built. Photo / AFP

Russian nuclear energy giant Rosatom will lead the construction of the first atomic power plant in Kazakhstan, the world’s top uranium producer, the Central Asian country’s authorities said on Saturday.

“Rosatom has been named as the leader of the international consortium for the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan,” the former Soviet republic’s nuclear power agency said in a statement.

Kazakhstan, a vast resource-rich country in Central Asia, is currently the world’s top uranium producer, providing 43% of supplies.

It does not produce enough electricity to meet domestic consumption needs.

The new power plant, whose construction was approved in a referendum in late 2024, will be built near the half-abandoned village of Ulken near Balkhash Lake.

The lake, located in the southeast, is the country’s second-largest.

China’s National Nuclear Corporation, France’s EDF and South Korea’s Hydro and Nuclear Power had all bid to build the plant.

In their announcement on Saturday, the Kazakh authorities said that the three companies would be included in the consortium led by Rosatom but did not provide any details.

Observers say the idea of the consortium is a way for authorities to maintain good relations with all the countries involved but is unlikely to come to fruition and Rosatom will end up building the plant by itself.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has sought to keep good relations both with former colonial power Russia and with China, which borders the country to the east and finances major infrastructure projects in the region.

Rosatom has proposed financing the project and work will now begin to thrash out the details, the statement said.

The announcement comes a few days before Chinese leader Xi Jinping is due to visit Kazakhstan for a “China-Central Asia” summit.

Kazakhstan had nuclear power plants when it was part of the Soviet Union, in addition to hosting Soviet nuclear weapons.

It was also the site for Soviet nuclear testing.

After the break-up of the USSR in 1991, the new country gave up its nuclear weapons, with other ex-Soviet states Belarus and Ukraine; it decommissioned its nuclear power plants in the following years.

- Agence France-Presse