The Kazakh government has approved the location for its second NPP. According to an official decree, the facility will be constructed in the Zhambyl district of the Almaty region, adjacent to the site selected for the first NPP. The Ministry of Justice published Government Resolution No 40 On the Construction and Construction Site of the Nuclear Facility Second Nuclear Power Plant, in the Adilet system of regulatory legal acts.
Earlier reports indicated that contracts for the construction of Kazakhstan’s second and third nuclear plants had been awarded to China’s CNNC. The first plant is being developed by Russian state corporation Rosatom in the village of Ulken, also in Zhambyl district, on the shore of Lake Balkhash, approximately 400 km northwest of Almaty. The design capacity of the first plant is 2.4 GWe, comprising two VVER-1200 reactors. Rosatom has already begun preparatory work on the site. The foundation is scheduled to be poured in 2029, with commissioning planned for 2035.
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, 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, with the government targeting a 5% nuclear share of the national generation mix by 2035.
