Energy Ministry proposes establishing international thermonuclear lab in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan’s Energy Minister Almasadam Satkaliyev has proposed establishing an international thermonuclear fusion lab in the country, the ministry reported.

«We are ready to establish an international lab for thermonuclear fusion based on the Kazakhstan Material Testing Tokamak (KTM),» the agency said in a statement, citing Satkaliyev’s speech during the Inaugural Ministerial Meeting of the IAEA World Fusion Energy Group in Rome, Italy.

According to the minister, Kazakhstan fully supports research and development in thermonuclear fusion and has made a significant contribution to the development of scientific infrastructure. In particular, Kazakhstan has managed to build a unique KTM complex in the town of Kurchatov, the Abay region.

The KTM is the first specialized tokamak in the world designed to research materials and construction projects for future thermonuclear reactors. It is used to test materials that can withstand the extreme conditions of operating thermonuclear reactors, including high temperatures, plasma density and radiation.

As Satkaliyev noted, KTM is a good choice for establishing a reliable technological base for future thermonuclear energy.

«We see that collaboration accelerates research, increases quality and creates necessary conditions for future scientific discoveries. We urge all attendees to continue expanding interaction with scientific and research organizations such as the National Nuclear Center of Kazakhstan and ITER, and to invite as many countries and partners for cooperation as possible,» he said.

The minister also emphasized that Kazakhstan is open to international cooperation and is ready to provide access to its experimental facilities. During the meeting, ministers discussed key tasks and challenges on the international agenda of thermonuclear energy, including matters related to finances, technologies, workforces and legal regulation.

This isn’t the first similar proposal by Kazakhstan. The Ulba Metallurgical Plant (UMZ, a subsidiary of Kazatomprom) hosts a low-enriched uranium (LEU) bank that operates under the aegis of the IAEA. The country proposed to host the facility the same way.

The bank, which has been in operation since 2019, aims to provide IAEA member states with access to uranium enrichment technologies and a guaranteed stock of products needed for nuclear fuel production. Kazakhstan’s LEU bank currently possesses about 90 tons of low-enriched uranium, which is just 10% of the uranium UMZ used to store as its own production stock.