According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Russia is willing to be part of an international consortium to construct the first nuclear power plant (NPP) in Kazakhstan. The official made this statement during a press briefing streamed on the MFA’s YouTube channel.
«Russia isn’t just ready to assist the nuclear power plant construction but has already presented its proposals. We monitored the referendum conducted by President Tokayev and saw him obtaining support for his plans to develop the nuclear energy sector. Rosatom is ready to share its expertise in order to discuss this matter with our Kazakhstani friends. We are ready to cooperate with relevant agencies and structures of third-party states,» Lavrov said.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was the first to propose the necessity of establishing an international consortium for constructing the nuclear power plant in early October. However, he didn’t clarify the terms and conditions for how countries can enter the consortium.
In a conversation with Kursiv.media, head of Kazakhstan Nuclear Power Plants, JSC Timur Zhantikin told Sergey Domnin, head of Kursiv.Research, that establishing an international consortium is a feasible task. However, it’s hard to say what that consortium could look like. Zhantikin also noted that attracting subcontractors for the nuclear power plant construction cannot be considered a consortium. In turn, Domnin emphasized that even though there are many examples of successful collaboration between equipment suppliers, there are no examples of similar cooperation between know-how suppliers.
So far, Kazakhstan is evaluating four companies as potential technology suppliers for its first nuclear power plant: Russian Rosatom, Chinese CNNC, South Korean KHNP and French EDF. On Oct. 6, the national referendum was held, in which citizens expressed their support for the NPP construction. The specific conditions and details are yet to be determined.
