National Nuclear Center of Kazakhstan agreed on cooperation with International Organization for Thermonuclear Energy

National Nuclear Center of the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan and International Organization for Thermonuclear Energy ITER signed an agreement on cooperation in various fields of activity.

The agreement was signed by the Director General of National Nuclear Center Erlan Batyrbekov and ITER’s Director General Bernard Bigot during the Ministerial Conference “Provision of Sustainable Energy Development” in Astana on Sunday, Kazenergy Association’s press center reported.

“The agreement signed today is the first step of our technical cooperation between NNC and ITER organization. We are very grateful to ITER organization, grateful to Mr. Bigo personally for this opportunity of cooperation and a unique offer to Kazakhstan to be an associated member of ITER, which in principle will allow our country to enter the top ten countries owning and having access to unique achievements in the energy of the future", explained NNC head E.Batyrbekov, whose words were quoted in the statement.

B. Bigo, in his turn, noted that the mission of ITER organization coincides with the subject matter of the international exhibition EXPO 2017.

"I have no doubt that sustainable energy is part of the future. The ITER project is currently gathering 35 countries, including China, India, Korea, Russia, and the US. These countries have joined forces to develop sustainable energy. The possibility of cooperation with National Nuclear Center of Kazakhstan is a unique opportunity: to work with the newly created center of material research”, - is cited in B. Bigo’s message.

The signing of the agreement is an important step in scientific and technical cooperation in the field of technology development in support of controlled thermonuclear fusion. For these purposes, a unique Tokamak KTM facility is being created on the basis of National Nuclear Center, Kazakhstan’s leading scientific organization in the field of peaceful use of atomic energy. This project is being implemented on behalf of the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev in support of the international program to develop controlled thermonuclear fusion. With the help of the KTM research complex, many engineering and fundamental scientific problems will be solved, which is especially important considering that according to the international scientific community, in the foreseeable future, thermonuclear reactors can become the main practically inexhaustible, environmentally clean energy source.

The Ministerial Conference and the VIII International Forum under the general title “Provision of Sustainable Energy Development” started its work in the first days of the opening of the international specialized exhibition EXPO-2017 “Energy of the Future”.

The ministerial conference and the forum are held by the government of Kazakhstan and the Kazenergy Association under the auspices of five UN regional commissions (ECE, ESCAP, ESCWA, ECA, ECLAC)

Source: Interfax - Kazakhstan