Kazakhstan has formed a shortlist of potential suppliers of reactor technologies for a project to build the first Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in the country, the Kazakh Nuclear Energy Agency said in a statement on Thursday.
"The shortlist of potential suppliers of reactor technologies has been formed. The list includes the Russian state corporation Rosatom alongside South Korea's KHNP, France's EDF and China's CNNC," the statement said.
A competitive dialogue with potential suppliers of NPP construction technology is now complete, it said. The supplier or consortium to implement the project will be decided by an interagency commission in line with national interests.
Kazakh authorities set up an intergovernmental commission to examine offers from all vendors. The NPP is expected to be built by an international consortium of companies.
Intergovernmental agreements and contracts needed for the project are expected to be signed in November this year.
The construction was approved in a 2024 nationwide referendum. The NPP was initially expected to be built by 2035 but the Kazakh Energy Ministry said later vendors would be asked to launch the first NPP power unit sooner, within eight years. The project is estimated to cost $10-12 billion.
Last December the Kazakh government approved the Almaty region's Zhambyl district as the construction site.
At present Kazakhstan is considering four suppliers of the more powerful reactor technologies: France, China, Russia and South Korea. One reactor will cost on average $5 billion, according to the ministry's data.
Three NPPs are expected to be built under the national nuclear cluster project. A comprehensive construction plan will be prepared in the second quarter of 2025, the ministry said.

Published Date:2025-04-11