Kazakh leader Friday (1/9) called for a referendum on building a nuclear power plant.
Authorities conducted hundreds of nuclear tests on the steppe of Kazakhstan during the Soviet era, regardless of the environmental and health impacts.
Many people in Kazakhstan, which is also the world’s leading producer of uranium, are skeptical of introducing nuclear into the country’s energy mix.
“Whether to build a nuclear power plant or not is a very important question and will have an impact on the future of our country,” said President Kassym Jomart-Tokayev.
“Therefore I propose to ask about it in a national referendum. The exact date will be decided later,” he said in his opening speech for the new school year.
It will be the first referendum in the authoritarian country where voting is seen as a formality with a predetermined outcome.
The World Nuclear Association says Kazakhstan is the world’s biggest producer of uranium, accounting for 43 percent of global production last year.
“On the one hand, Kazakhstan as the world’s largest uranium producer should have its own nuclear power plant,” said Tokayev.
“But on the other hand, many citizens and experts are worried about the safety of nuclear stations. This is understandable, given the tragic tragedy of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site,” he said.
Moscow used a large area in northern Kazakhstan – known as the Semipalatinsk Test Site – between 1949 and 1989.
About 1.5 million people are thought to have been exposed to high levels of radiation during testing there. Areas close to these locations still recorded higher cancer rates.
Russia is a major exporter of nuclear power and its nuclear power agency Rosatom has been involved in building power plants in several developing countries, including neighboring the former Soviet Union, Belarus. (ab/lt)