Kazakhstan’s nuclear agenda spans research, security, ecological safety

"We are determined to work closely with the IAEA in the development and practical use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," Vladimir Shkolnik, president of Kazatomprom, the national atomic company, commented to the press during the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C., in April 2010. "Our projects are aimed at increasing the security level of the utilisation of nuclear power and nuclear physics technology, as well as the development and implementation of new progressive methods in industry, science and the social sphere, including health care and environment protection."

According to director general of the National Nuclear Centre (NNC) Kairat Kadyrzhanov, currently, there are three main phases of the nuclear power and nuclear-related development in the country.

First is the development and research of the Kazakhstan Thermonuclear Research Centre's Tokamak (Toroidal Chamber with Magnetic Coils) machine to make the long awaited transition from studies of plasma physics to full scale electricity-producing fusion power plants.

Second is the completion of a BN-350 Spent Fuel Programme which consisted of shutting down Kazakhstan's BN-350 plutonium production reactor in Aktau and the secure long-term storage of the spent fuel from around 30 years of the reactor's operation.

The third related field is about overall examination of the radio-ecological situation in the area of the former Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site, its rehabilitation, and study of the agricultural potential of the region, as well as aspirations to mine gold, copper, molybdenum and other minerals, and establish industrial plants in the adjacent area.

A joint work on the project of the Tokamak (KTM) machine located in Kurchatov, a town in the eastern part of the country and the former centre of the former nuclear test site, was included in the list of the tasks defined in a joint statement of the presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan on cooperation in the field of atomic energy for peaceful purposes in 2006. A Russian-Kazakh working group to coordinate the process has been set up.

A trial run of the reactor was conducted in September 2010, where the first plasma at the lowest possible settings was obtained. This historic step for the project demonstrated the working condition of the facility and its individual systems, skills and capabilities of scientific personnel. The results allow making further steps to prepare the KTM for obtaining the operating parameters of the plasma, Kazinform refers to the press service of the Kazakh Foreign Affairs Ministry.

According to Kadyrzhanov, the project development took 12 years; however, a lot remains to be done.

"The ship was put on the water, so to speak, but there is still work left to be done before it can sail," the scientist said in an interview with Astana Calling.

Tokamak is a machine, one of several types of magnetic confinement devices, which uses a magnetic field to confine plasma in the shape of a torus (or a donut), and as a result of a thermonuclear reaction, the release of energy amounts to much more than used to create the plasma.

Tokamak, invented in the 1950s by Soviet physicists Igor Tamm and Andrey Sakharov, is one of the most-researched candidates for producing controlled thermonuclear fusion power. It is more cost efficient than installing other types, while the strongest level of security can be ensured.

Tokamak's product - plasma - is supposed to be helpful in another way and in a much larger project. It is meant to be used to test the beryllium inner walls, and to make sure they would stand the pressure, the radiation and the temperatures and make sure the thermonuclear reactor would operate safely producing infinite amounts of energy.

It is, thus, a part of a larger international research and engineering project of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) on the construction of the world's largest and most advanced experimental Tokamak nuclear fusion reactor in Cadarache, France. Total costs of that project, now in the progress, are calculated at almost US$ 21 billion.

In addition, an agreement between Kazakhstan and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) on controlled thermonuclear fusion is being successfully implemented. A memorandum of cooperation and agreement on the exchange of specialists with the Spanish Research Centre for Energy Environment and Technology (CIEMAT) has been signed. A European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA), a memorandum of cooperation with the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Environment (ENEA), agreement with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology are planned to be signed. As a result of close cooperation with the Japanese Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), Kazakhstan's young professionals are also annually trained at the Tokamak JT-60.

Along with promoting nuclear research, Kazakhstan also prioritizes securing sensitive materials, which could be of interest to terrorist groups.

As part of such efforts, on 17 November, two co-chairs of the U.S.-Kazakhstan Energy Partnership, Kazakhstan's Minister of Oil and Gas Sauat Mynbayev and U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman, announced the successful completion of a BN-350 Spent Fuel Programme which consisted of shutting down Kazakhstan's BN-350 plutonium production reactor in Aktau. The project secured approximately 800 nuclear weapons worth of spent fuel, and transported the spent fuel to a new secure storage facility in the eastern part of the country.

"Moving the BN-350 fuel to a new facility for secure long-term storage is a critical nuclear nonproliferation milestone and an important contribution to the global security," National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Administrator Thomas D'Agostino commented on the issue.

Finally, since 1994, Kazakhstan's Institute of Radiation Safety and Ecology of the National Nuclear Centre has been researching the radio-ecological situation of the former Semipalatinsk Test Site.

According to the researchers, the area can be divided into three sectors. The first is the area with a significant and authentically known radioactive contamination which is unsuitable for economic development in the long term. The second type includes contaminated territory which requires additional radio-ecological investigation, the results of which will determine whether the land can be used or requires decontamination. The last, the third type, are areas which, according to preliminary data, are not contaminated and after final examination can be used for cultivation.

Within the framework of the state programme "Provision of security to the former Semipalatinsk Test Site", the National Nuclear Centre had carried out ecological investigation of the northern part of the site, located in the Pavlodar Oblast, and is currently in the process of sanitary-epidemiological expertise.

Experts of the IAEA, familiar with the study, have concluded that the methods used were adequate, accurate, and Kazakhstan's specialists who conducted the study are well-qualified. According to Deputy Director of IAEA Werner Burkart, his organisation has also helped collect radiological data and identify major contaminated spots.

As the result, last September, the government-approved "Zhasyl Damu" (Green Development) industrial programme for 2010-14 included the proposals for optimisation of administration of the former Semipalatinsk Test Site territory and further determination of its status.

According to the UN official Kori Udovicki, the United Nations passed six resolutions between 1999 and 2006 dealing with the rehabilitation of Semipalatinsk. One should note that Japan has underwritten much of that effort. Due to the similar history of suffering from nuclear weapons, "the Japanese people will keep paying attention to Semipalatinsk," Japan's ambassador to Kazakhstan Shigeo Natsui said at the International Conference against Nuclear Testing held in Astana in August 2010.

"Semipalatinsk has become a powerful symbol of hope, because it shows that a nuclear-free world is attainable," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said in his speech at the site, when visiting Kazakhstan in April of 2010.

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