Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov told a government briefing that the first plant, planned near the village of Ulken on the shore of Lake Balkhash in Almaty Region, will be built with a consortium led by Russia's Rosatom, and the second, the Moyynkum plant also near Balkhash, is being developed with the China National Nuclear Corporation. "The parameters of the project are currently being discussed, including the terms of the deal and the timeline. We believe that the projects should be completed by 2035," he said.
Kazakhstan announced in June 2025 that it would build its first nuclear plant with the Rosatom-led consortium, and said almost immediately afterward that it would build a second with China. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev praised the approval of a referendum on nuclear power in 2024 as the “correct decision” and referred to nuclear power as being of “fundamental importance”; the vote was held under heavy government pressure on critics of nuclear power, according to the report.
At his annual state of the nation speech in late October, Tokayev proposed turning the country into a "big construction site," said it was possible, "perhaps necessary," to begin construction of the Balkhash plant in 2027, and called for a "comprehensive cooperation agreement with the goal of promptly commencing construction of the Moyynkum NPP." He said foreign partners should be engaged to create high-tech production facilities, transfer nuclear expertise and train domestic specialists, and that such proposals were being received from Russian and Chinese companies.
The Balkhash plant is to consist of two VVER-1200 III+ reactors with a combined capacity of 2.4 gigawatts. Survey work began in August 2025, when the project's cost was put at $14-15 billion; by June 2026 it was around $16.4 billion. In June this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Astana to oversee the signing of a dozen agreements, including one on the provision of a Russian state export loan, reported to furnish as much as 85 percent of the project's financing, though the loan's exact terms have not been disclosed.
The Moyynkum project is at an earlier stage, with no deal settled. Tengrinews reported in April, when the plant's name was revealed, that it is expected to consist of two power units of 1,200 megawatts each. CNNC had earlier proposed its HPR-1000, also known as the Hualong One, a generation III+ pressurized water reactor with an electrical output similar to Rosatom's VVER-1200.
Kazakhstan is also considering a third, smaller plant. The chairman of the country's Atomic Energy Agency said on November 2 that Astana is weighing a medium-capacity plant of 300 to 600 megawatts, with possible sites including the city of Kurchatov in eastern Kazakhstan's Abai Region or a location in western Kazakhstan.