In Turkey, the first Akkuyu nuclear power plant in this country is built on the Mediterranean coast. The construction of the fourth power unit started there the other day.   

It is important to note that nuclear energy technologies are the cooperation of several states. The Akkuyu project is implemented by an international consortium. The reactor plant (water-water power reactor) is a development of a subsidiary of the Russian corporation Rosatom - Atomenergomash. The turbines are provided by the French joint venture of Atomenergomash and General Electric.   

To study the international “atomic” case and the technologies used in Turkey that can be used for the construction of nuclear power plants in Kazakhstan, not only experts from the project organization of the Samruk-Kazyna Fund - Kazakhstan Nuclear Power Plants LLP came, journalists, public figures, majilismen were invited to the construction site.

As the editor-in-chief of the newspaper “New Generation” Sergey Aparin emphasized, Kazakhstan needs a clean, technological and safe energy source.

“In my opinion, Kazakhstan has no other way but to attract nuclear energy to the economy. Because a part of the regions of Kazakhstan will stagnate without it, the environment will deteriorate, the economic potential will fall in any case. As for alternative energy (renewable energy sources – ed.), we see how this is all happening now. Now even such countries that are incredibly successful in alternative energy - the same Turkey - where there are rise and fall of the tides, where there are quite large height differences, there are river hydroelectric power plants, where there are a huge number of sunny days and very much solar energy, wind energy, just thermal energy is used. However, at the same time, the country is very dependent on external energy sources, they absolutely lack alternative sources. What we can say about Kazakhstan, where there are regions where there are half as many sunny days a year as here,” Aparin said. 

In turn, a journalist of the Zakon portal.kz Mikhail Kolomin believes that nuclear power plants are a good opportunity to reduce the carbon footprint.
“We all understand perfectly well that today in the era of digitalization, in the era of high technologies, there is a high demand for electricity, despite the fact that Kazakhstan is rich in resources – this is a serious carbon footprint if you use, so to speak, natural energy sources. The alternative is green energy, which is nuclear energy,” he concluded.

The Head of the Union of Power Engineers of Kazakhstan, Marat Dulkairov, said that the time for the construction of small-scale or experimental nuclear power plants has not yet come in our country.
“In my opinion, we are experimenting in Kazakhstan with the type of nuclear power plants, with types – they are in large experimental production today in the USA, Japan, and France – different small-scale. Of course, they are convenient, but these reactors are developed, this is the testing stage. We have no moral right to put Kazakhstan under a testing ground. We already had it once in the Semipalatinsk area. Therefore, we need already proven technologies,” Dulkairov said. 

For him, as a professional, the need for a nuclear power plant is no longer in question.  

“We simply have no alternative to other types of generation. No generation we have today has a place to be, except for a nuclear power plant. Now the task is what technology to choose, and who will produce products for the future NPP. That's the main task,” he concluded.