Kassym-Jomart Tokayev says economic development impossible without stable energy supply
A referendum on the construction of a nuclear power station in Kazakhstan will be held this autumn, Kazakh president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has said, according to local media reports.
“Indeed, the country has great opportunities for the development of nuclear energy,” Tokayev was quoted as saying.
“It is important to use them correctly and effectively. The people will make the final decision on this issue. The referendum will be held this fall. The government will determine the exact date.”
Tokayev said economic development will be impossible without a stable energy supply and he has instructed officials to begin work on plans for the construction of a nuclear power station.
“A broad discussion is currently underway,” he said. “Different points of view are being expressed.”
The site being considered for new nuclear is near Ulken village in the Almaty Region, although “this is subject to change”, an official at the National Nuclear Centre of Kazakhstan told NucNet last year.
Ulken is 330 km northwest of the city of Almaty on the shores of Lake Balkhash in southeastern Kazakhstan. The settlement was created in the 1980s to house workers for a planned hydroelectric power plant. That project was unfinished when the Soviet Union collapsed and high-rise apartments are the only completed constructions from the period.
The official said Kazakhstan faces a growing electrical power deficit, largely due to aging thermal power facilities from the Soviet era that desperately need replacement.
