Kazakhstan Uranium Reserve Planned by End of 2027

Kazakhstan, the world’s largest uranium producer, plans to create a state strategic uranium reserve by the end of 2027 to secure fuel supplies for its future nuclear power plants. Deputy Prime Minister and National Economy Minister Serik Zhumangarin announced the deadline at a government meeting on November 3. The country’s nuclear development strategy calls for reserving at least 150,000 metric tons of uranium by 2050. Atomic Energy Agency Chairman Almassadam Satkaliyev said on November 2 that the reserve could include deposits left underground, physical stocks of natural uranium, and manufactured nuclear fuel. The government has not announced how much material will be held in each form or how the reserve will be financed. Most of Kazakhstan’s uranium output is exported. In 2026, national uranium company Kazatomprom signed new supply contracts with energy companies in China and India. The company is also exploring six sites covering more than 1,000 square kilometers and plans to begin exploration at the Kyzyltu site. Kazakhstan approved the construction of its first plant under the new nuclear program in an October 2024 referendum. Its longer-term plans envisage at least three plants operating by 2050, reintroducing nuclear generation into an electricity system still heavily dependent on coal. The first plant, Balkhash, is planned near the village of Ulken in the Zhambyl district of the Almaty region. Russia’s Rosatom will lead construction of the two-reactor facility, with a combined generating capacity of 2.4 gigawatts. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2027, with commissioning provisionally expected in 2037–2038. China National Nuclear Corporation has been selected to lead the second project, Moyynkum, in the same district near Lake Balkhash. Kazakhstan plans to sign an intergovernmental agreement on the project by the end of 2027. For a third nuclear power plant, it is considering Kurchatov in eastern Kazakhstan and a location in the west of the country, although no final site has been announced. Kazakhstan’s vast uranium deposits do not eliminate the need for international partners to produce reactor fuel. Natural uranium must undergo further processing, including enrichment to make it suitable for the planned reactors, before being manufactured into fuel assemblies, or bundles of fuel rods. Kazakhstan already produces these assemblies at the Kazakh-Chinese Ulba-FA fuel assembly plant in Oskemen. The facility reached its annual design capacity of 200 metric tons of low-enriched uranium in fuel assemblies in 2024. It supplies Chinese reactors using manufacturing technology from France’s Framatome and uranium enriched in Russia.