BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 15. One of the prospective areas of possible cooperation between the Russian state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom and Kazakhstan is the construction of a nuclear power plant (NPP) in the country, the state corporation said, Trend reports.
"This is an ambitious objective, providing, in fact, the transformation of the national economy," the official of Rosatom said.
Additionally, it was noted that the construction of the nuclear power plant could become the engine of a strategic partnership between the two sides for decades to come.
"As far as we are aware, Kazakh partners compiled a short list of possible suppliers of NPP technologies, which included Rosatom. To the degree that it serves the interests of the Kazakh side, we are prepared for any format in which the NPP building project is implemented," the state corporation noted.
To note, on September 1, 2023, the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, stated that a referendum will be held in the country in connection with the construction of a nuclear power plant.
"In 2019, on my election platform, I promised that the most important strategic issues would be decided through referendums. The construction of or refusal to build a nuclear power plant is an extremely important issue concerning the future of our country. Therefore, I propose to put it to a national referendum. We will decide on specific terms later," he said.
Afterward, Kazakhstan presented a list of companies that are bidding to supply technology for the country's first nuclear power plant. They are China's CNNC with the HPR-1000 reactor, South Korea's KHNP with the APR-1400 reactor, France's EDF with the EPR-1200 reactor, and Russia's Rosatom with the VVER-1200 and VVER-1000 reactors.
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