News archive :: Year 2006
30-01-2006 08:49
Kazakhstan Prime Minister announced the necessity for NPP construction
Kazakhstan Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov announced the necessity for nuclear power plant construction in the republic.
“The global earnest mission of Ministry of Energy is the preparation and justification of nuclear power plant construction in Kazakhstan. We must turn to this issue”, - stated Prime Minister at a government session on Tuesday in Astana.
"It became clear today, - he emphasized, - that protraction of the issue is one of problems which will hamper the industrial innovation development”.
D. Akhmetov assigned the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources “to form a working group to study the issue and to make proposals in the first quarter of this year”.
First, the intention to construct NPP near the Balkhash Lake was made known by Government of Kazakhstan in 1998. At that time it was announced that the first power unit of Balkhash NPP was planned to be start up in 2005 and NPP as a whole not earlier than 2015. The total cost of facility was estimated to the extent of 2 billion USD. However at that time people accepted the NPP construction plan negatively.