🇰🇿⚛️ What’s known about Kazakhstan’s first-ever planned nuclear facility

An overwhelming 71.12% of Kazakhstan’s citizens have voted to support a plan to construct the nation’s first nuclear power plant in a public referendum held in October.

Sputnik delves into what is known about the project.

Location

◻️ The nuclear power plant with 1200 MW may be built in the village of Ulken in the Kazakh steppes on the shores of Lake Balkhash, Central Asia's second-largest lake.

◻️ According to the authorities, this location was chosen because Kazakhstan’s southern regions have a higher energy deficit than other parts of the country. Prospected energy requirements show a 1400 MW deficit in the southern area by 2028.

Projected numbers

◻️ The Kazakh Ministry of Energy projects that by 2035, electricity consumption in Kazakhstan will reach 152.4 billion kilowatt-hours.

◻️ By 2035, Kazakhstan aims to achieve a nuclear power capacity of 2.4 GW. The facility is set to utilize advanced Generation III and III+ reactors, known for their improved fuel efficiency and enhanced safety features.

◻️ Estimates indicate that the construction of a nuclear power plant would require an investment of approximately $10 billion to $12 billion.

Tokayev told reporters that regarding potential contractors he thinks “an international consortium would need to work in Kazakhstan made up of global companies that possess the most advanced technologies."

Reasons

◻️ The concept of this project has been championed by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's cabinet as essential for ensuring energy security.

Currently, coal-fired plants generate 66% of the country's total energy, with the remainder produced by hydroelectric facilities and the renewable energy sector.

◻️ Given that Kazakhstan is one of the world’s largest producers of uranium, the decision to pursue nuclear power was a logical choice. With 12% of the world's uranium resources, Kazakhstan ranks second in global reserves and is a leader in uranium production, generating approximately 21,100 tons of uranium (tU) in 2023.

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Starmer ally hints assisted dying laws for people should take a page from animal euthanasia rules

Human beings in Britain should be get the same level of dignity in dying as animals get, Kim Leadbeater, a Labour MP planning to introduce new assisted dying legislation in parliament, has said.

“We wouldn’t treat animals like this,” Leadbeater said in a Times interview over the weekend, arguing that “we give our animals a better send-of than we do some human beings when they’re facing the end of life.”

Leadbeater is set to introduce her bill on October 16, with PM Keir Starmer promising to remain neutral and not crack the whip of party discipline to force Labour MPs to vote one way or another.

A recent Sputnik investigation into assisted dying discovered that while the compassion-driven motives behind euthanasia laws may be noble, the passage of legislation on the issue often turns into a slippery slope, with laws in Belgium, Columbia, Canada and other countries limiting euthanasia to terminally ill adults subsequently expanded to children and the non-terminally ill (and even discussed as an option for the mentally ill).

Lobbying in favor of assisted dying by activist organizations and corporations including George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and Pfizer have also raised questions about the true motivations at play.

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🇲🇽 Hurricane John hammers Mexico, leaving 70,000 homes damaged.

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So this is the capital of Borrell's "civilized garden"

Slovak MEP Milan Mazurek delved into how Brussels looks today.

"Friends, it's morning in the capital of Europe, in civilized Brussels. We're not in some ghetto, we're just one street away from the European Parliament. As you can see, it's littered with garbage. This is what Brussels looks like today, yet we're being lectured by Western Europe that we are not civilized and that we should learn how to run our country from these people," he said.

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Yemen’s Houthis say they fired two missiles, including a hypersonic one, at military targets in Tel Aviv

Air raid sirens sounded across a wide area in central Israel, including Tel Aviv and its suburbs, a Sputnik correspondent reported Monday. The Israeli military said a surface-to-surface missile had been launched from Yemen.

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🇨🇺 Cuba officially applies for BRICS partner status

The Cuban government has made an official request to join the BRICS bloc as a partner country in a letter to President Putin, since Russia currently chairs the association, Carlos Pereira, the director general of bilateral affairs of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, said.

"Cuba has officially requested to be included in BRICS as a 'partner country' in a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is the interim chairman of the association, which is strengthening its position as a key player in global geopolitics and the hope of the Global South," Pereira said on X.

Earlier, Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel received an invitation to the BRICS summit in Kazan.

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📹 Watch footage of a man being pulled out alive from under the rubble after Israeli strikes in the town of Tebnine, southern Lebanon.

Source: social media

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🇷🇺🇨🇳 Russian and Chinese Navy's ships have participated in anti-submarine drills within the framework of joint patrols in the Asia-Pacific region, the Russian Pacific Fleet’s press service stated.

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❗️IDF claims it has killed Suhail Hussein Husseini, commander of Hezbollah headquarters

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Marine Le Pen's niece announced creation of her own party

Marine Le Pen's niece, MEP Marion Marechal, has announced the creation of her own party, which will work “in a structured coalition” with Jordan Bardella's National Rally and Eric Ciotti's Union of the Right for the Republic, according to the newspaper Le Figaro.

The party will be called “Identity and Freedom” and serve as the voice of the right, which opposes the culture of excessive liberalism, dependency, and “fiscal racketeering,” and seeks to break with “mental socialism,” she told the newspaper.

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Ukraine warns Slovakia it won’t extend agreement with Russia on gas transit

Ukraine will not prolong the agreement with Russia on transit of Russian gas through its territory after the current one expires, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal told Slovak PM Robert Fico on Monday.

"Ukraine will not extend the transit agreement with Russia after the expiration of its term," Shmyhal posted on X.

The Ukrainian PM also said that the two countries had agreed to establish an Eastern European energy hub to use Ukraine's gas storage facilities.

Earlier, Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar told his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov that the country supports maintaining the existing corridors for oil and gas transit.

A decision by Ukraine to cut Central Europe off from access to Russian natural gas via Russia’s only remaining operational gas pipeline in the region “will seriously harm the interests of European consumers who still want to buy Russian gas,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“They will simply have to pay much more, which will make their industry less competitive,” Peskov said.

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▪️ Yemen’s Houthis say they fired two missiles, including a hypersonic one

▪️ Ukraine warns Slovakia it won’t extend agreement with Russia on gas transit

▪️ Cuba officially applies for BRICS partner status

Other stories we have covered:

▪️ What’s known about Kazakhstan’s first-ever planned nuclear facility

▪️ Starmer ally hints assisted dying laws for people should take a page from animal euthanasia rules

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❗️ Russia is updating its nuclear doctrine so that its adversaries have no illusions about Moscow's readiness to ensure its security by all available means, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Sputnik.

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