Kazakhstan's govt planning to construct another two nuclear power plants

ASTANA. Jan 28 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan's government plans soon to sign all the necessary agreements in order to construct the country's first nuclear power plant, and also determine the regions for constructing the second and third plants, Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov said.

"We will conclude in the near future the necessary agreements to construct the first nuclear power plant in the Almaty Region. We are also conducting an assessment in the regions to find sites for constructing the second and a third nuclear power plants," Bektenov said at an expanded government meeting on Tuesday.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev asked the government and the Samruk Kazyna state fund to draft long-term plans for the nuclear industry and finalize the most suitable locations for future NPPs.

"We need a concrete vision. Based on a comprehensive analysis we need to select suitable sites for the construction of future NPPs; we will also need the state-of-the-art and safe technologies. I expect the government and the parliament to propose a site for the construction of a second NPP," Tokayev said at the government meeting.

The president said there was a growing deficit of electricity, so it was necessary to speed up the construction of the first nuclear power plant and create a nuclear cluster.

Kazakh Energy Minister Almassadam Satkaliyev told a briefing that a city in the Abai region was being considered as a potential site for Kazakhstan's second NPP.

Kurchatov, located on the left bank of the Irtysh River between Semey and Pavlodar, was previously the center of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, which was shut down in 1991.

Satkaliyev said the president had raised the issue of creating a nuclear cluster at the meeting, and this would involve building several nuclear power plants. "We were asked to select a site. It is clear that our selection will be based on forecasts for the energy balance, the development of the national grid," Satkaliyev said.

Kazakhstan's citizens voted in favor of building a nuclear power plant in the country at a referendum on October 6. The preferred site for the first plant is near the village of Ulken in the Almaty region.