State nuclear company Kazatomprom, the world’s largest producer and seller of natural uranium, said the shipment was of uranium it owns with the Inkai joint venture with Canadian uranium miner Cameco.
The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route was originally developed in 2018 to mitigate the risk should the usual primary route via St Petersburg in Russia be unavailable.
The alternative route was developed because the Port of St Petersburg was temporarily unavailable to some categories of nuclear material when the city was to host football matches as part of the 2018 World Cup.
Kazatomprom has since maintained the route, which passes through Azerbaijan and Georgia, to provide an alternative route for delivering its material to western customers and has used it for several shipments.
Earlier this year, Cameco put deliveries of its share of Kazakh uranium on hold until an alternative route avoiding Russian railway lines or ports could be finalised.
This shipment, which was dispatched at the end of September, is the first of the Canadian company's share of Inkai’s 2022 production.
“Kazatomprom continues to monitor the growing list of sanctions on Russia and the potential impact they could have on the transportation of products through Russian territory,” the company said. “To date, there are no restrictions on the company’s activities related to the supply of its products to customers worldwide.”
Kazakhstan is planning its first commercial nuclear power station and has said it aims to choose the reactor technology supplier in the first quarter of 2023.
