Preliminary estimates put the Balkhash nuclear power plant at about $14.4 billion for two reactors, with a further $2 billion for physical security and social infrastructure. The figures come from Kazakhstan’s Kazinform news agency rather than from an official budget, and they cover what would be the country’s first nuclear station. Rosatom signed the construction contract in September 2026.
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No official announcement has put a price on the project. The cost has to be read as a working estimate attached to a plant that has not yet broken ground. Kazinform, the state-run agency whose reporting World Nuclear News relayed, described the number as preliminary, and neither Rosatom nor the Kazakh government has confirmed it in an official statement that was found for this report.
The price tag and who reported it
World Nuclear News carried the numbers in its 4 November 2026 report on Kazakhstan’s uranium plans, citing Kazinform for about USD 14.4 billion across the two units plus roughly $2 billion for security systems and social infrastructure. A September account of the Rosatom contract notes that official announcements around the signing gave no financing details, which is why the Kazinform figures are the only public price in circulation. Adding the two numbers gives roughly $16.4 billion for the whole undertaking, though that sum is arithmetic on preliminary estimates rather than a quoted total.
Financing principles were agreed in an export-loan arrangement alongside an intergovernmental agreement during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to Kazakhstan in May 2026. Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called the May agreement of exceptional significance, according to the contract report. Financing principles for an export loan, rather than a published loan amount, were the formal outcome of the May visit.
The estimate has a few visible moving parts. The $14.4 billion covers the two reactor units themselves, while the extra $2 billion is earmarked for physical security systems and social infrastructure around the site, so site protection and community needs are costed apart from the reactors. Because the contract for the full scope was only signed in September, the split between equipment, construction labour and financing costs has not been published.
Two VVER-1200 units at Lake Balkhash
Rosatom’s design is the VVER-1200 pressurised water reactor, and the plant will use two of them for a combined 2,400 MW. The site is in the Zhambyl district of the Almaty region. Rosatom was chosen in 2025 to lead an international consortium and now holds an engineering, procurement and construction contract covering the project from design through commissioning and handover to the customer, Kazakhstan Nuclear Power Plant being that customer. Alexei Likhachev, Rosatom’s director general, commented on the signing for the Russian side.
Survey work began in August 2025 and has already involved more than 60 boreholes. That programme is due to finish next year, to be followed by the documentation needed for permit applications. Construction is targeted for 2027, with the first unit operating in 2034. Between now and then the project passes from boreholes and surveys to permit applications, then to excavation, then to the build itself, and each handoff is a point where the estimate can be tested against real quotes from suppliers.
The schedule gives the cost estimate its context. Between the September 2026 contract and the targeted 2027 construction start, the survey and permitting work has to finish, and the first reactor is not expected to run until 2034, seven years after construction begins on the plan’s own dates. A $14.4 billion project that spans that many years is exposed to changes in exchange rates, materials and labour costs, any of which could move the preliminary figure before a final budget is struck.
A referendum, a 2034 date and two more plants
Public consent was tested in 2024, when over 70% of the 7.8 million voters who responded said yes to building a nuclear plant. Kazakhstan Nuclear Power Plant, a subsidiary of Samruk-Kazyna, has existed since 2014, so the Balkhash project carries more than a decade of institutional preparation. The World Nuclear Association’s Kazakhstan profile lays out that background.
Balkhash is not meant to stand alone. China National Nuclear Corporation is slated to build a second plant on an adjacent site in the Zhambyl district, and sites are being examined for a third using medium-sized units of 300 to 600 MW that could also supply heat and desalination. The government’s target is a 5% nuclear share of generation by 2035, a goal that the 2034 date for Balkhash’s first unit leaves only a year to meet.
Kazinform’s reporting, relayed through its agency site, remains the only source for the $14.4 billion estimate. A formal budget, once the permit documentation is filed, would settle whether that figure holds. Until then, the number should be read as a signpost for scale: a bit over $16 billion all-in, spread across a build that runs from 2027 to at least 2034.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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