Kazakhstan's unique contribution, World Nuclear News

Kazakhstan's role in the global nuclear order is "far from minor", wrote the report's author, Togzhan Kassenova. Blessed with abundant uranium resources, the country is the world's largest uranium producer. Its nuclear sector made a major comeback after facing collapse in the early 1990s when the Soviet Union disintegrated and state-owned company Kazatomprom has been gradually pursuing an advanced nuclear fuel cycle, including the capacity to produce nuclear fuel. On the international scene, Kazakhstan's nuclear diplomacy is "rather ambitious as well," Kassenova wrote. The country hosted Iranian nuclear talks in 2013 and will host the international nuclear fuel bank expected to be launched in 2015. These examples confirm that Kazakhstan "is seeking a greater role for itself in global nuclear politics."

For now Kazakhstan is the only Central Asian state with an interest in developing nuclear energy, she wrote. "Kazakhstan's leadership believes development of nuclear energy will fuel the country's economic growth and stimulate high-tech industrialization." In early 2014 Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev requested that the government finalize nuclear power plans by the first quarter of the year. In May 2014 Kazakhstan and Russia signed a memorandum on construction of a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan. The Kazakh government expects that by 2030 4.5% of all electricity will come from a nuclear source, the World Nuclear News reports.