EDB may allocate up to $500 mln for building NPP in Kyrgyzstan

ALMATY. Dec 18 (Interfax) - The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) is ready to finance the project for constructing a nuclear power plant in Kyrgyzstan within the established limit of $500 million per borrower.

"Kyrgyzstan is still considering this issue [regarding the feasibility of constructing the plant]. We need first of all for this thought process to materialize as actual plans. And then we are ready to get involved," Nikolai Podguzov, the board chairman of the Eurasian Development Bank, said at a press conference on Thursday.

The bank is ready to participate in the project both from the perspective of co-financing and by assisting in design through the technical assistance fund.

"Obviously, this [constructing the nuclear power plant] will not be a $1 billion project, therefore, considering our size, here we can probably only take on a part of it. But we are ready for this and would gladly participate," Podguzov said.

In turn, Yaroslav Mandron, deputy board chairman of the EDB, said at the press conference that the bank has a limit of $300-$500 million per borrower. Therefore, regarding nuclear energy, the bank is ready to work within these limits.

In early 2022, Kyrgyzstan and Rosatom signed a memorandum on the construction of a low-capacity nuclear power plant (LNPP) on the sidelines of the World Expo 2020 in Dubai. Initially, it was planned that this could be one or two LNPPs with one or two RITM-200N nuclear units of 55 MW each.

In the spring of this year, Rosatom reported that it had transferred the preliminary feasibility study (pre-FS) for the LNPP construction project to the Kyrgyz Energy Ministry. At World Atomic Week 2025, Kyrgyz Deputy Energy Minister Altynbek Rysbekov said that there is the possibility of constructing the plant, but a fundamental decision has not been made yet.