Kazakhstan has offered Turkey to organize uranium mining on Kazakhstani territory and provide Turkish nuclear reactors with fuel, said the general director of the design bureau of chemical engineering of Kazakhstan, Baurzhan Duysebayev, during the geological forum MINEX Kazakhstan, Kursiv reports.
“Suddenly, Turkey entered the top five – four reactors under construction, four more are being built there, and this country can become a good new partner for Kazakhstan. Well, and for them, the best partner is Kazakhstan, taking into account, of course, Russia. Future demand. I calculated 4.8 GW – even for two stations, not counting the third station in Thrace – 1,800 tons per year. If they mine in Kazakhstan, then they should mine not 1.8 thousand tons, but 5-8 thousand tons. This is either twice the Uzbek uranium, or a sixth of our uranium. Where to get it? This presentation was prepared for the Turkish side,” the Kazakh minister noted.
He stressed that Turkey will need more and more nuclear fuel, so he offered Turkey to get a contract for uranium mining in Kazakhstan. In addition, it is possible to organize conversion, that is, the process of processing ore into raw materials for the production of nuclear fuel. However, an agreement on conversion, according to him, has not yet been reached.
According to Duysebayev, as a result of cooperation with Kazakhstan, Turkey can quickly begin to obtain uranium hexafluoride (raw material for fuel for nuclear power plants). In 2000, Kazatomprom was going to receive nuclear technology from Western or Eastern partners. But as a result, apart from the production of 200 tons of fuel assemblies at a joint Kazakh-Chinese enterprise for the needs of Chinese nuclear power plants, nothing came of it.
"Therefore, here, taking into account this bad experience, we can take a different approach with the Turkish side," he added.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
April 11, 2025