5 Jun (NucNet): Construction of the first Kazakh nuclear power station will begin in 2018 if the government approves the project by the end of the year, state media and the Nuclear Society of Kazakhstan said.
If construction begins in 2018, the first reactor unit could begin commercial operation in 2023 or 2024, deputy minister of industry and new technologies Bahytzhan Dzhaksaliyev was quoted as saying.
“If the decision on the construction of the nuclear power plant has been taken by the end of 2014, we can expect to receive first energy volumes in 2023-2024,” he said.
Last month, Russia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement that could lead to them cooperating on the construction of the facility.
The agreement, signed by Rosatom chief executive officer Sergei Kiriyenko and National Atomic Company of Kazakhstan (Kazatomprom) president Vladimir Schkolnik, covered possible cooperation in the design, construction, commissioning, operation and decommissioning of a nuclear power station using reactors with an installed capacity of 300 megawatts to 1,200 MW.
The two countries also intend to cooperate on nuclear fuel supply to the proposed facility with the possibility of fabricating the fuel, or its components, in Kazakhstan.
According to the Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency, Kazakhstan was the world’s leading producer of uranium in 2011 and has around 15 percent of the world’s uranium resources. Uranium is needed to make fuel for nuclear reactors.
Kazakhstan has no commercial nuclear units. It operated the BN-350 Aktau demonstration fast breeder reactor from 1992 until 1999. The reactor has now been decommissioned.
