Controversy surrounds Kazakhstan’s nuclear referendum

President of the Central Referendum Commission of Kazakhstan (ORK), Sabila Mustafina, said on September 3 that 15.5 billion tenge (more than $32 million) had been requested for a nationwide referendum on building a nuclear power plant in the Central Asian country next month.

The announcement came a day after President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev announced the referendum and signed a decree setting October 6 as the date of the vote.

According to Mustafina, 71% of the requested sum would cover compensation for the work of more than 70,000 ORK members, while 29% would be used for communication activities, newsletters and advertisements.

“The government will decide on the allocation of the said amount for the referendum, after our estimates are approved by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of National Economy and the Ministry of Justice,” Mustafina said.

Mustafina’s MP Konstantin Petrov said more than 12 million Kazakh citizens are eligible to vote at more than 10,000 polling stations across the country and 78 polling stations will be set up in different countries for Kazakh citizens living abroad.

The referendum will ask only one question: “Do you agree that Kazakhstan should build a nuclear power plant?”

Many in Kazakhstan expect the answer to be yes, given the country’s tightly controlled political environment.

But the push to build a nuclear plant has been met with significant opposition, despite apparent efforts to silence dissent on the issue. In recent weeks, several activists known for their stance against the construction of the nuclear plant have been prevented from participating in public debates on the issue.

Nuclear energy projects have been a contentious issue in Kazakhstan, where the environment was severely damaged by operations at the Soviet-era Semipalatinsk nuclear test site from 1949 to 1991 and the Baikonur spaceport, which is still operated by Moscow.

Hours before his decree was made public on September 2, President Toqaev reiterated his support for the plan to build a nuclear power plant.

There has been no official information on the location of the future nuclear plant, but last year there was a public debate in the village of Ulken on the shores of Lake Balkhash in the southeast region of Almaty about the possibility of building a nuclear power plant there. .

The idea of ​​building a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan has been circulating in the country for years, leading to questions about which countries would be involved in the project.

Kazakh officials tried to avoid answering the question, saying the decision would be made after a referendum.

Shortly before launching its ongoing invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia proposed that its Rosatom nuclear agency be Kazakhstan’s major partner in the project.

Kazakh netizens have largely dismissed the idea of ​​Rosatom’s involvement, citing the legacy of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and Russia’s gaining control of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant as examples of Russia’s attitude toward nuclear safety.

Via RFE/RL

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