The Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan has voted “yes” in a referendum on whether or not to build a nuclear power plant, the Kazinform news agency reports.
Kazakhs went to polling stations on Sunday, 6 October to answer the question – “Do you agree with the construction of a nuclear power plant?” – and 71% of voters said “yes”.
Of 12.3 million eligible voters, 7.8 million cast a ballot, making a turnout rate of just under 64%, the country’s Central Referendum Commission said.
“Thus, the referendum is deemed valid, and the proposal has been approved,” said Nurlan Abdirov, the commission chairman.
No firm plans have been announced for building a plant, but Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has suggested that it may be built by an international consortium.
“This is not a simple issue,” he said while voting.
“The government needs to conduct an analysis and hold the necessary negotiations. My personal view is that Kazakhstan should have an international consortium made up of global companies with the most advanced technologies. Beyond that, as they say, time will tell.”
National nuclear projects typically attract fierce competition between the small number of companies who are able to deliver such a project, namely Russia’s Rosatom, the Korea Electric Power Corporation, EDF of France, Westinghouse of America and China’s two nuclear champions.
The Kazakh government has pushed the nuclear option to diversify its energy mix, and also to make use of the country’s relatively abundant uranium.
It has no experience of a full scale nuclear power station, but it has three research reactors, and in the past has run a Russian-designed BN-350 sodium-cooled fast reactor.
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