A national competition to find the best name for Kazakhstan’s first NPP has ended. The competition, which was organised at the initiative of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, took place from 25 September to 10 October on the eGov Mobile platform.
“Based on the results of the final meeting of the Competition Commission, the winning name was Balkash NPP, which received the largest number of proposals from citizens,” according to the press service of the Kazkahstan Atomic Energy Agency. “The chosen name also corresponds to the international practice of naming nuclear power plants geographically. In total, 27,157 citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan over 16 years of age took part in the competition. Each participant could propose one name,” it said.
The Competition Commission, which was established in September, included representatives of the public, the creative industry, as well as experts in the field of nuclear energy, philology and history. Of the applications received, 10,460 different options were identified. When processing, different forms of spelling, including Cyrillic and Latin, were taken into account.
At the final meeting of the commission the 100 most popular names were considered. The name Balkash NPP was proposed by 882 citizens, and it took first place in the final ranking.
The NPP is being built at Ulken in the Zhambyl District of the Almaty Region on the shores of Lake Balkhash. A referendum on NPP construction took place in Kazakhstan in 2024, with the majority of voters supporting nuclear development.
In June, Rosatom was designated as the lead of an international consortium for construction of the plant, which will comprise two Generation III+ VVER-1200 reactors.
