Kazakhstan and China carry through atomic project in East Kazakhstan
Construction of the plant on production of the fuel assemblies is one of the breakthrough projects which is being implemented at the request of the President within the Kazatomprom development strategy for creation of vertically integrated company with a complete cycle of production of fuel for the Nuclear Power Plant.
The plant will be managed jointly by Ulba-Fuel Assemblies joint venture (founded by JSC Ulbinsky Steel Works (51%) (Kazatomprom branch) and the CGN-URC company (49%) (CGNPC branch).
The technology for production of fuel assemblies has been provided by the French company "AREVA" which is a world leader in this segment. The contract was signed between AREVA NP and Ulba-Fuel Assemblies. It includes the license for technology for fuel production, engineering documentation, delivery of the capital production equipment, personnel training, etc.
According to the Chairman of Board of Kazatomprom Askar Zhumagaliyev, "construction of the fuel assemblies plant is the result of many-year cooperation between Kazakhstan, China and France and one of the strategic steps for production diversification made by Kazatomprom.
According to Zhang Shanming, the CEO of "CGNPC", the company has been cooperating with Kazatomprom in uranium production, trade in natural uranium and productions of tablets since 2006. Implementation of the joint fuel project allowed to bring partnership to a historically new level. This project is one of successful examples of cooperation within the "One Belt - One Way" and "Light Way" programs".
The Chief Executive Officer of AREVA Philip Knoro said: "AREVA is proud of the fact that it was chosen as the supplier of complete technology for this future plant on production of fuel assemblies. This contract strengthens the existing strong relations between AREVA, JSC NAC Kazatomprom and CGNPC. Our team has been already mobilized for successful project implementation, and we already began production of the necessary equipment".
Kazatomprom noted that implementation of the project based on Ulbinsky steel works there would be created modern automated production with the capacity of 200 tons of the fuel assemblies per year for further use on nuclear power plants as nuclear fuel.
The entity will have guaranteed market of the products for 20 years ahead. The amount of investments will be about KZT 49 billion, half of which will be provided by the Chinese party. Within this project in Kazakhstan additional adjacent productions and 129 new jobs will be created. The start of production is planned for 2020.