French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in uranium-rich Kazakhstan on Wednesday on the first leg of a trip to Central Asia, a region long regarded as Russia's backyard that has drawn fresh Western attention since the war in Ukraine began. His main aim: securing raw materials and possibly a lucrative contract for a nuclear power plant. But many in Kazakhstan are not happy.
Oil-rich Kazakhstan has already emerged as a replacement supplier of crude to European nations turning off Russian supply and an important link in the new China-Europe trade route bypassing Russia.
At a meeting with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Macron complimented Astana for refusing to side with Moscow on Ukraine and said the two countries planned to sign significant business deals.
"We will be able to make progress on important international matters, underscore our commitment to the United Nations charter and principles such as territorial integrity and national sovereignty," he said through an interpreter.
But Kazakhstan mainly attracted Macron's attention because of its vast uranium resources.
Nuclear power
According to a study by the World Nuclear Association (WNA,) published in August this year, Kazakhstan possesses 12 percent of the world's uranium resources and in 2021 produced about 21,800 tons. In 2009 it became the world's leading uranium producer, with almost 28 percent of world production. In 2019, the country produced a staggering 43 percent of the world's uranium.
One of France's traditional uranium suppliers, Niger (good for 15 percent of Paris' nuclear needs,) ceased to be reliable after a military junta toppled the government there in July. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 had already caused uncertainty surrounding imports of Russian uranium.
Hence the drive for alternatives.
Last July, Macron visited Mongolia, where France got involved in a uranium mining project run by Badrakh Energy, a company jointly run by France's Orano Group (formerly Areva) and Mongolia's Monatom.
In Kazakhstan, French nuclear giant Orano (formerly Areva) is involved in KATCO, a joint venture with NAC Kazatomprom JSC and other projects since the 1990s, while cooperation was extended last year with the exploitation of new parcels ensuring production for the next 15 years.
More recently, Orano started activities in Uzbekistan (Macron's next stop) as well.
Orano is active in Kazakhstan, where it has been operating uranium mines since the 1990s, and more recently in Uzbekistan. Orano President Claude Imauven is accompanying Macron on his trip along with 14 other French executives, including Luc Remont, head of French energy giant EDF.
France currently has 18 nuclear power plants with 56 reactors. That number is set to expand substantially in the coming years, as will the need for uranium.
In response to the need to slash fossil fuel emissions and cut its reliance on foreign energy, Macron announced, in February 2022, that France would spend €51.7 billion to build another 14 new nuclear reactors over a 28 year period.
Building new plants?
Another point of interest for Macron is Kazakhstan's re-introduction of nuclear power and its needs for nuclear plants - a branch in which France is a world leader.
From 1972 to 1999, a single Russian nuclear power reactor operated in Kazakhstan, generating electricity and desalinating water. Today, the country has a major plant making nuclear fuel pellets and "aims eventually to sell value-added fuel rather than just uranium," according to the WNA.
In September, World Nuclear News reported that Kazakhstan's Ministry of Energy "has proposed the potential reintroduction of nuclear power to reduce the country's reliance on fossil fuels, diversify its energy mix and reduce CO2 emissions."
Companies compete
JSC Kazakhstan Nuclear Power Plants (KNPP), the owner/operator of future plants, began preparing a feasibility study in 2018. In a 2021 interview with Russian news agency Interfax, KNPP's General Director Timur Zhantikin said that "diversifying Kazakhstan's energy" away from fossile fuel was "urgent" and that a nuclear plant was to be built in the south of the country.
Kazakhstan may choose France's EDF to become the foreign partner. According to a report by the Astana Times in January, EDF Senior Vice President Vakis Ramany discussed "enhancing cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology," with the possibility of EDF providing its EPR-1200 reactor for Kazakhstan’s first nuclear power plant.
But competition is stiff, and Kazakhstan will select a potential supplier of technological solutions from four foreign companies: the China National Nuclear Corporation, Russia's Rosatom and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Company (KHNP.)
The public is still scared
Tokayev announced during his State of the Nation address on 1 September that the issue will be decided by a national referendum, as the Kazakh society is "deeply divided" over anything related to radiation: decades of nuclear testing by Soviet Union authorities has left the public suspicious.
According to the Astana Times, Kazakhstan "experienced nearly 500 nuclear tests conducted by the Soviet Union at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in eastern Kazakhstan.
Nearly 1.5 million people continue to suffer the consequences.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the US, Kazakhstan and Russia cooperated in a program to neutralise some of the nuclear waste, but "environmental rehabilitation is ongoing in the area affected by massive radiation fallout," according to the newspaper.
Russian concerns
Meanwhile, Russia has voiced concern at the West's growing diplomatic activity in former Soviet Central Asian nations. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week the West was trying to pull Russia's "neighbours, friends and allies" away from it.
"I do not underestimate by any means the pressure that some actors may be putting on you," Macron told Tokayev. "France highly values our friendship. We follow the path of friendship."
"This is the path for your country which refuses to be a vassal of any powers, and wants to maintained balanced relations with different countries in the interest of your people. Such a strategy is close to France."
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, where Macron goes next, have refused to recognise Russia's annexation of Ukrainian territories and have pledged to abide by Western sanctions against Moscow, while calling both Russia and Western nations such as France their strategic partners.
(With newswires)
