Rosatom Signs Contract to Build Kazakhstan's First Nuclear Power Plant
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The Facts
- Rosatom and Kazakhstan Nuclear Power Plants signed a construction contract on September 3 for the Balkhash nuclear power plant, Kazakhstan's first.
- The Balkhash plant will consist of two reactor units with a combined electrical capacity of 2,400 megawatts.
- The plant will be built near the village of Ulken in Kazakhstan's Almaty region.
- Rosatom expects to obtain a license and begin construction in 2027, with commissioning within about ten years.
- The estimated cost of the Balkhash plant is $16.4 billion.
- Kazakhstan must still complete domestic state procedures and issue a site license before construction can begin.
- Russia and Kazakhstan signed an intergovernmental agreement on the project and a Russian state export credit for its financing in May 2026.
- Rosatom said it handed Iran a draft intergovernmental agreement on building small nuclear power plants.
- Rosatom said Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian discussed the Bushehr nuclear plant at a bilateral meeting in Bishkek.
Context
What other nuclear projects did Rosatom report on at the same forum?
Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev said the company is carrying out physical startup at a unit in Bangladesh and at Unit 7 of China's Tianwan plant, hopes to reach physical startup of Unit 3 at China's Xudapu plant by year-end, and is 'one step away' from starting up Unit 1 at Turkey's Akkuyu plant TASS. He also said work on the contract for Vietnam's first nuclear plant, Ninh Thuan 1, is 'in full swing,' with a Generation III+ VVER-1200 reactor selected TASS. Rosatom is separately due to present proposals for a new nuclear plant in Armenia armenpress.am.
What role will Rosatom play in the Kazakh project?
Rosatom will lead an international consortium and oversee the full project cycle — design, procurement, construction, commissioning and handover to the customer TASS,Interfax.ru,Anadolu Ajansı. The contract was signed on the Russian side by Atomstroyexport, Rosatom's engineering subsidiary, and on the Kazakh side by Kazakhstan Nuclear Power Plants Коммерсант.…,Tengrinews.kz,Zakon.kz. Site survey work near Ulken is continuing and is due to be completed in 2027 Алтапресс,vesti.ru.
What questions remain open in Kazakhstan?
Kazakhstan has not yet determined how it will dispose of nuclear waste from the plant, according to Russian outlet Pravda citing an Atameken business association official Pravda. Kazakhstan's Atomic Energy Agency chairman Almassadam Satkaliyev said the country is ready to complete all domestic procedures, including issuing the site license next year, which would serve as the starting point for construction TASS.
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- A Russian state export credit and a decade-long build mean Rosatom's leverage over Kazakhstan arrives long before the electricity does — dependence neither framing treats as incidental.
- Where Left and Right split
- Whether the story is about Kazakhs carrying $16.4 billion in debt and lost room to maneuver, or about Russia taking a market no rival bothered to contest.
- Why they won’t converge
- The divide is about whose interests count as the measure — Kazakh citizens carrying decade-long debt versus Western strategic position — so both sides can accept every contract term and still score the deal on incompatible ledgers.
- Watch for
- Rosatom chief Alexey Likhachev's September 29 visit to Yerevan, where he is to present Russia's proposals for a new Armenian plant and may swap small modular reactors for gigawatt-scale units.PAN.am, ARKA News Agency
How left and right read it
A $16.4 billion plant financed by a Russian state export credit is not just infrastructure — it is a long-term claim on Kazakhstan's public finances and on its room to maneuver. Because commissioning sits roughly a decade past the 2027 start, the debt and the dependence land on ordinary Kazakhs first, while the electricity waits. The site license is still Kazakhstan's to grant. What is being asked in return?
Influence follows financing. Rosatom showed up with a Russian state export credit and a $16.4 billion contract for two units near Ulken, with commissioning roughly a decade out, so Russian reactors and Russian money will be embedded in Kazakhstan's power system for a generation — while the same corporation hands Iran a draft agreement on small plants. Offer partners a credible non-Russian alternative, or concede the field.
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