Recently, the preliminary technical work for the Kazakhstan nuclear power plant project has quietly come to an end. China Energy Engineering Northeast Institute has signed two consecutive contracts in Kazakhstan. On October 16th, it signed a contract for environmental investigation services related to the factory site, and on October 19th, it signed a contract for environmental investigation and evaluation services for the KZB project site. The two contracts cover areas such as radiation background, occupational health, land ecology, population diet, atmospheric noise, electromagnetic radiation, etc. None of them are related to the unit itself, but none of them are necessary before the unit starts operation. The verification of China's nuclear power going abroad in Pakistan is whether it can build a Hualong One, while Kazakhstan needs to verify whether the Chinese technical documents can be accepted by the Kazakh regulatory system from the environmental impact assessment draft in the courtyard where the Russians have already occupied the first reactor.

Rules for drafting environmental impact assessment papers

The background investigation of radiation environment is to conduct a physical examination of how much radiation was present at the factory site before the construction of the nuclear power plant. According to the technical specifications for background investigation of radiation environment before the operation of nuclear power plants, the scope of gamma radiation dose rate investigation is taken as a radius of 50 kilometers from the plant site, with a focus on 20 kilometers. The nuclide list should cover tritium, carbon-14, cesium-137, cobalt-60, and manganese 54, and the receiving water medium should also include silver-110m and ruthen-106. When the Harbin review personnel open the safety analysis report submitted by the Chinese side in the future, the background data of the factory site used for comparison is written by the Northeast Institute, and the evaluation framework used to determine whether the occupational exposure scenario is reasonable is constructed by the Northeast Institute. The subsequent preliminary design, environmental impact assessment, and even the radiation monitoring baseline after the operation of the unit all need to be based on this draft.

Quotation Advantage Knock on the Door Brick

Kazakhstan's nuclear power construction resolution was passed in a national referendum in October 2024 with 71.12% support. In June 2025, Rosatom was selected to lead the first nuclear power plant, and CNNC was confirmed to lead the second one. Subsequently, the First Vice Premier of Kazakhstan further stated that the third one would also be handed over to China. CNNC's offer is also enough to make its competitors lose sleep: public reports show that two sets of HPR-1000 units with a total installed capacity of 2.4GW are priced at about 5.5 billion US dollars, while Rosatom's offer for projects of the same scale is in the range of 12 billion to 15 billion US dollars, more than double. But being half as cheap does not mean that the contract itself will run over long legs. Ha Fang has not yet signed a substantive agreement with CNNC. The price advantage can only push the Chinese proposal to the front row of the negotiation table, it cannot warm up the chair for it. Keywords: the Belt and Road News Network, International, Nuclear Power

Admission ticket is not a trophy

There is no controversy over China's position in the field of conventional island design for nuclear power plants in China: over 90% of conventional island survey and design projects have been put into operation domestically, and over 60% of conventional island engineering construction shares. Northeast Institute has participated in the survey and design of 21 operating and under construction nuclear power units, including 6 Hualong One. But the commonality of these resumes is that they start from the construction and design ends, not from the front-end rules end. The Pakistan acceptance certificate was signed after the unit was generated, and Kazakhstan's test began from the sampling points of the background investigation. The feasibility study contract is a purchase price, not an income statement. Only by obtaining the admission ticket can one be qualified to prove in subsequent contract allocation that they are not just the Northeast Institute with a domestic supporting market share of 90%, but a design institute that can occupy a position in the front-end technology chain of China National Nuclear Corporation's overseas projects. During the feasibility stage, no one cut the ribbon, there were no lifting nodes, and there was no power generation ceremony, but the rules were written there.Editor/Gao Xue