Kazakhstan will hold a referendum on whether to build a nuclear power plant on October 6, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced on September 2.
Speaking at a meeting of both chambers of parliament with an annual address to the people of Kazakhstan, Tokayev argued the project is needed to diversify energy sources in Kazakhstan, which has abundant oil and natural gas reserves. It is also the world’s leading producer of uranium, used to fuel nuclear power plants, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reported.
Kazakh Energy Minister Almassadam Satkaliyev has said the construction of a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan is the only way to meet a rising domestic power demand and carbon-neutrality goals.
Currently, Kazakhstan gets about 80 percent of its energy from coal-fired plants and another 15 percent is generated by hydropower, while the rest comes from renewable energy resources.
No exact site for the future nuclear power plant has been announced, although two have been mentioned as likely: at Ulken near Lake Balkash and at Kurchatov.
It’s also unclear who would build the plant. In 2023, the Kazakh Energy Ministry said Russia’s Rosatom was one of four contractors whose reactors were under consideration for the plant, with EDF of France, the China National Nuclear Corporation, and South Korea’s Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power the other three.
Nuclear-power-related projects have been a controversial issue in Kazakhstan, where the environment was severely impacted by operations at the Soviet-era Semipalatinsk nuclear test site from 1949 to 1991.
