21 Dec (NucNet): Russia and Kazakhstan have reached an agreement in principal to consider the construction of a new nuclear power plant at Aktau on the Caspian Sea in western Kazakhstan.
The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, made the announcement during during a press-conference in the Kremlin on 20 December 2007.
In a statement afterwards Mr Nazarbayev said the two countries are making “serious efforts” to extend cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy, including an initiative to establish an international centre for uranium enrichment. “There are serious plans to unite our efforts in world markets in this area,” he said.
The head of Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom), Sergei Kiriyenko, has already said any new unit at Aktau would be a third generation plant based on Russian submarine reactor technology.
Mr Kiriyenko said Kazakhstan was Russia’s “strategic partner” in the nuclear sphere and that further integration “will strengthen our positions on the world market”.
Kazakhstan closed its prototype 52-megawatt fast breeder reactor BN-350 in 1999. According to International Atomic Energy Agency statistics, the country also has three operational research reactors.
>>Related reports in the NucNet database (available to subscribers)
Kazakhstan Announces Targets For Increased Uranium Output (News in Brief No. 30, 21 March 2005)
Russia And Kazakhstan To Develop Innovative Reactor Units (World Nuclear Review No. 42, 20 October 2006)
Russia And Kazakhstan Sign Siberia Uranium Centre Agreement (World Nuclear Review No. 20, 18 May 2007)
