Kazatomprom head favors NPP construction in Kazakhstan around Russian reactor
ASTANA. May 18 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan has not decided yet whether it will use the Russian VBER-300 reactor for its first nuclear power plant (NPP) or not, head of Kazatomprom national company Vladimir Shkolnik has said.
"In my opinion, the design of the reactor developed in compliance with the agreement on strategic partnership between Russia and Kazakhstan in nuclear energy is the safest reactor in the world today. And in my opinion, it is not a 3+ reactor in safety, but somewhat better, it is 4+," he said at the conference "Kazakhstan-USA: 20 years of partnership for security and development" in Astana on Friday.
"It is on such reactors that international nuclear power engineering should be built. Reactors of such capacity are produced in safe conditions. If Fukushima had occurred on such a reactor, it would not have cooled and nothing would have happened. I have dreamed of such reactors all my life and the design exists," he said.
He reminded the conference that the feasibility study had been made and approved by government bodies.
"These are extremely high technologies, of course. We are now discussing how this country should be developing and whether we will be developing nuclear power engineering at all. If the decision is made, then [the reactor] will be. If no decision is made, then this reactor will not materialize. If what power engineering should be like is discussed, then I would speak of this particular type of reactor," he said.