Kazakhs approve plan for first nuclear energy plant – Uplaza

Kazakhstan has accredited a plan to construct its first nuclear energy station in a referendum, overcoming lingering resentment over large radiation publicity from Soviet-era nuclear checks.

The Central Asian nation is the world’s largest producer of uranium and has large oil reserves but it surely suffers from power power shortages.

The “Yes” vote received 71.12 p.c in Sunday’s referendum and the turnout was 63.66 p.c, the Kazakh electoral fee mentioned Monday.

China, France, Russia and South Korea are within the working to construct the brand new energy station, which is to be positioned on the shores of Lake Balkhash.

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who was elected in 2019, says the plant could be “the biggest project in the history of independent Kazakhstan”.

Tokayev indicated Sunday that he most well-liked an “international consortium made up of global companies equipped with cutting-edge technologies”.

The “Yes” camp has dominated all through the marketing campaign and opponents involved about potential accidents struggled to make themselves heard.

Dozens had been arrested within the weeks previous the referendum, in response to native personal media.

The problem of nuclear energy is delicate on condition that between 1949 and 1989, the Soviet Union carried out round 450 nuclear checks there, exposing 1.5 million individuals to radiation.

The facility station is because of be constructed close to the semi-abandoned village of Ulken within the Kazakh steppes on the shores of Lake Balkhash, Central Asia’s second-largest lake.

To bolster turnout, the authorities cleared Kazakhs to vote even when they weren’t registered on the electoral lists. Buses had been free in massive cities on referendum day to facilitate entry to polling stations.

“The referendum itself is further proof of the enormous changes that have occurred in Kazakhstan over the past five years, a new clear manifestation of the concept of a listening state,” Tokayev mentioned earlier than the vote.

© 2024 AFP