A three-nation enterprise involving investment from Kazakhstan and China and support from France is underway, as AREVA of France announced the construction start of a uranium processing plant in Kazakhstan that is scheduled to begin production in 2020.
The National Atomic Company Kazatomprom and China General Nuclear Power Corporation are the parent companies involved. Kazatomprom, through its subsidiary Ulba Metallurgical Plant will own 51 percent of the operation, while China General Nuclear Corp., through its subsidiary CGN-URC – and by virtue of its investment of $150 million – will own 49 percent. Together, they have created a joint venture known as Ulba-FA.
AREAV is the primary supply company, offering a license for fuel fabrication technology, engineering documentation, key components and production equipment and personnel training. When up and running, the plant is expected to provide 129 full time jobs and provide indirect and ancillary economic benefits to the region. It is also expected to find a “guaranteed market outlet for 20 years,” AREVA said in a statement.
The presence of a fabrication facility in the country will diversify Kazakhstan's uranium mining industry, said Kazatomprom Chief Executive Officer Askar Zhumagaliyev. He called the project the result of “long-term cooperation of Kazakhstan, China and France and one of the strategic steps of Kazatomprom toward product diversification.”
“We are planning to offer to the market the fuel for nuclear power plants of Kazakhstan's origin, which will allow us to strengthen our position on the global nuclear market,” Zhumagaliyev said.
Fuel assembly fabrication is a large-scale, highly automated mechanical process that is divided into key stages” Fuel elements fabrication, skeleton fabrication, FA fabrication, FA storage, FA loading for transportation and delivery of the product to nuclear power plants. The uranium contained in these fuel assemblies will originate from mines in Kazakhstan, which will have been further processed into fuel pellets manufactured at the existing processing facilities at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant.