The Kazakh Government has approved a site for the construction of the country’s first nuclear power plant. According to a Government decree, the facility will be located in the Zhambyl district of the Almaty region, in southwestern Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan had held a referendum on the construction of the country’s first nuclear power plant in early October 2024, for which over 71% of participants voted in favour. Four companies, namely CNNC (China), KHNP (South Korea), Rosatom (Russia), and EDF (France), have been shortlisted as potential technology suppliers for the construction of the nuclear plant. The Kazakh Ministry of Energy currently estimates that the plant could be built within eight years to be completed in the early 2030s.
Kazakhstan does not yet have nuclear capacity (the 52 MW Aktau nuclear facility opened in 1973 was closed in 1999 after the government joined the global non-proliferation agreement), but is the world’s first uranium producer, with 21.8 kt produced in 2023, and has the world’s second largest proved reserves of uranium with over 316 kt. Kazakhstan's Strategy 2050 targets 2 GW of nuclear capacity mix by 2050.
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