Astana, Kazakhstan, Jan. 26
By Daniyar Mukhtarov - Trend:
Several foreign companies, including Russian and Japanese companies will be involved in the planned construction of two nuclear power plants in Kazakhstan, Kazakh Energy Minister Vladimir Shkolnik told reporters Jan. 26.
"One of the power plants will likely to be Russian-made on the Semipalatinsk shooting range," he said. "As for the Balkhash area, all projects being implemented in the world are discussed. The best of them is chosen. The decision has not been made yet. But we saw that one of the most promising plants is that one made by "Toshiba Westinghouse". Kazakhstan is a shareholder in this company. This is also a promising and safe development."
"One of the nuclear power plants will be built with the Rosatomprom's participation, the second one with the participation of the company that wins the tender," he said. "Several foreign companies made bids for participation in the tender."
Earlier, head of Kazatomprom JSC National Company, Nurlan Kapparov told Trend that the company is holding negotiations with over four large international companies on the project for construction of a nuclear power plant on its territory.
"The negotiations touch upon the security issues, economics of the project and its cost, as well as financing scheme," he said.
Kapparov said French AREVA, Japanese Mitsubishi and Toshiba, Russian Rosatom, as well as South Korean companies are among those with which the negotiations are being held.
The negotiations on the construction of a nuclear plant have been held in Kazakhstan for over 10 years.
"I have a feeling that everything will now go really fast," Kapparov said. Now we are at the zero stage on the nuclear power plant and it is necessary to form a team."
He confirmed the information spread by several media outlets according to which the issue of construction of two nuclear power plants in Kazakhstan's Kurchatov and Balkhash cities is being discussed.
"We will implement the project with Rosatom in Kurchatov and there is an open competition in Balkhash," said Kapparov.
He said that Kazakhstan does not exclude the use of the POS (probability of survival)-300 reactor in Kurchatov, which was offered by the Russian side.
"POS-300 - it will be one of the technologies...," the head of Kazatomprom said. "We do not rule out POS-300 for now, although it may be POS-600 or even POS-1000... Everything will be resolved through negotiations and calculations, the main thing is that we do it together with Rosatom and it is important."
Earlier, Kazakh Energy Ministry told Trend that the country plans to build a nuclear power plant in at least 12 years.
First of all, feasibility studies of the project should be developed and it will take about 2 years, according to the ministry. Then the construction work will require at least 10 years.
Kazakh President Nursultan ordered construction of the nuclear power plant.
Kazakhstan has great uranium reserves - the main fuel for the plant. The country remains the world's biggest uranium producer since 2009 and has produced 22,500 metric tons of uranium in 2013. Currently the country exports all the produced uranium.
Edited by CN