During a visit of President of Russia Vladimir Putin to Kazakhstan the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding concerning the cooperation in building a NPP in Kazakhstan.
The document was signed by ROSATOM CEO Sergey Kirienko and President of the National Atomic Company of Kazakhstan “Kazatomprom” Vladimir Schkolnik.
The Memorandum of Understanding Concerning the Cooperation in Building a Nuclear Power Plant in the Republic of Kazakhstan stipulates intentions of the parties in relation to the cooperation in design, construction, commissioning, operation and decommissioning of a nuclear power plant with water-water reactors of an installed capacity of 300 up to 1,200 MW by Russia in Kazakhstan. According to the document, the parties also intend to cooperate on nuclear fuel supply to the NPP with a possibility of fabricating it or its components in Kazakhstan in frames of the industrial cooperation between the parties. It also provides for the interaction in training and advancing skills of the staff required for efficient operation of the NPP. It is planned to prepare in 2014 a separate intergovernmental agreement, which would also set forth the project financing mechanism.
Also, a roadmap for settling subsoil resource use issues at Kharasan-1, Akdala and Southern Inkai deposits in Kazakhstan. The document defines a list of specific measures that facilitate further development of promising uranium deposits in Kazakhstan by Russia-Kazakhstan joint ventures. It is planned to sign addenda to the subsoil resource use contracts before October 28.
In addition, Rosatom and Kazatomprom signed the Comprehensive Development Program for Russia-Kazakhstan Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, which assumes the further development of the cooperation between enterprises of the nuclear power complexes of the two countries, development of sectoral research projects and joint work on improvement of the radiation safety level.
The parties also agreed to cooperate in the alternative energies and production of rare and rare-earth metals. An intention was stipulated to analyze competences, production capacities and technologies available to the companies aiming at identifying potential projects in this area for joint implementation.