Kazakhstan to Launch Nuclear Power Plant Training Program
From the 2025/26 academic year, Serikbayev East Kazakhstan Technical University will offer a new “Nuclear Power Plant Operation” program, developed in collaboration with experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The initiative aims to prepare highly qualified personnel for Kazakhstan’s first nuclear power plant, scheduled to come online in about a decade. Internationally Supported Program The curriculum was created under two projects, “Expert Mission to Strengthen National Capacity in Education and Training to Support the Nuclear Power Plant Construction Program” and “KAZ2010: Support for Infrastructure Development for the Implementation of the Nuclear Energy Program (Phase 3).” Courses will cover nuclear reactor physics, radiation safety, the nuclear fuel cycle, and equipment modernization. Practical training will take place at the National Nuclear Center in Kurchatov and at a metallurgical plant in Ust-Kamenogorsk, where heat-releasing assemblies are produced from Kazakh raw materials. In April 2025, the university hosted an international forum with participation from the IAEA and Russia’s National Research Nuclear University MEPhI. In June, lecturers Aizhan Baidildina and Nadezhda Prokhorenkova trained at a nuclear power plant in Hungary. In October, Dean Aibek Akayev will attend an IAEA StarNet network meeting in Vienna. Training Specialists Nationwide According to the Atomic Energy Agency, Kazakhstan currently has 18 educational programs related to the nuclear industry, offered at six universities including L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty University of Energy and Communications, East Kazakhstan University named after Amanzholov, and Shakhimety State University. Plans include training at foreign universities and awarding double degrees in nuclear physics and engineering. More than 5,000 grants have been allocated for the 2024/2025 academic year, compared with approximately 250 students enrolled in the previous year. Between 2011 and 2023, more than 1,600 specialists graduated from nuclear-related programs. Over 5,000 workers for the nuclear sector have already been trained at research institutions such as the National Nuclear Center and the Institute of Nuclear Physics. The government also plans to expand international internships, with future placements in France, Russia, and Hungary. Nuclear Power Plant Construction Kazakhstan has considered nuclear power a strategic priority since the 1990s, aiming to reduce electricity shortages, cut reliance on imports, and stabilize prices, while also contributing to the goal of carbon neutrality by 2060. In October 2024, more than 5.5 million Kazakhstani citizens voted in a referendum to support construction of the first plant. In January 2025, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev approved the concept for a second plant. A month later, the site for the first plant was approved in the Zhambyl district of the Almaty region. French engineering firm Assystem conducted the technical evaluation of proposals. Russia’s Rosatom won the tender with its reactor design, followed by a Chinese company in second place, and French and South Korean firms in third and fourth.
