Photo: gov.kz
Kazakhstan and Russia have launched construction of a nuclear power plant in the republic, TASS reported. The ceremony, attended by Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev and Almasadam Satkaliyev, head of Kazakhstan’s Atomic Energy Agency, took place near the village of Ulken in Almaty Region — the site where the plant will be built.
In his address, Likhachev said that Rosatom aims “to build a true bestseller of the nuclear technology market.” Satkaliyev, in turn, stated that today’s ceremony marks the start of engineering and survey work — a key preparatory stage that determines not only the choice of the exact site and plant configuration but also the safety, reliability, and economic efficiency of the entire project, Kursiv.kz reported.
Likhachev and Satkaliyev pressed a button to symbolically launch the survey phase, then carried out drilling to collect soil samples. A capsule containing the samples was ceremonially handed over to the Russian side for analysis.
The future plant will feature modern VVER-1200 reactors (water-water power reactors with an electrical capacity of 1,200 MW) of Generation III+. The reactor’s service life is 60 years, with the possibility of extending it for another 20 years.
Earlier reports said that the cost of the first nuclear power plant, to be built on the shore of Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan, is estimated at $14–15 billion. Rosatom was chosen to lead the construction consortium as it submitted the most competitive proposal. The preliminary construction timeline is seven years.
