KAZAKHSTAN: AMBASSADOR VISITS BN-350 NUCLEAR REACTOR,

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASTANA 001222 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN, T, ISN STATE PLEASE PASS TO USTDA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL EMIN ENRG EINV KNNP KZ SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: AMBASSADOR VISITS BN-350 NUCLEAR REACTOR, MANGISTAU ATOMIC ENERGY COMPLEX REF: (A) 08 ASTANA 2298 (B) 08 ASTANA 2316 (C) 08 ASTANA 2345 (D) ASTANA 0943 (E) ASTANA 1220 ASTANA 00001222 001.2 OF 003 ¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet. ¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY: On July 16, the Ambassador toured the Mangistau Atomic Energy Complex (MAEC),including the decommissioned BN-350 fast-breeder nuclear reactor, the sodium processing facility (SPF), and a desalinization plant. The Ambassador then met with MAEC General Director Saken Utebayev, who expressed his appreciation for U.S. assistance, confirmed the government's plans to build a new nuclear power plant on site, and promised to remove and store all spent nuclear fuel by 2010. Utebayev also complained that he has been hounded by the Prosecutor General for the past three years for allegedly engaging in monopolistic behavior and not paying taxes on U.S. technical and financial assistance. END SUMMARY. STORAGE CASKS FILLED AND READY FOR TRANSPORT ¶3. (SBU) Gennadiy Pugachev, director of the BN-350 facility, welcomed the Ambassador and showed him around the spent fuel storage site. He thanked the U.S. government profusely for providing significant technical and financial assistance to MAEC in support of the BN-350 decommissioning program. Pugachev pointed to 11 large casks lined up underneath a large crane and said they were filled with spent fuel -- "mostly uranium, with some plutonium" -- and were ready for transport to a permanent storage facility in Baikal-1 (Eastern Kazakhstan). He told the Ambassador that MAEC plans to begin transporting all 18 casks to Baikal-1 in October. When the Ambassador asked him how much additional funding was required to transport the casks, Pugachev said, "We need another $7.5 million." (NOTE: This figure is higher than the $5 million the government of Kazakhstan initially expected this work would cost during 2009, but is lower than the total expected cost of $14 million through 2010. END NOTE). Pugachev also said that all of the storage casks on site were made in Russia, although MAEC ordered additional casks from a factory in Sumi, Ukraine, that missed its deadline and had not yet made delivery. "It is not easy to work with the Ukrainians these days," he said. ; SODIUM-PROCESSING FACILITY OPERATIONAL... ¶4. (SBU) Pugachev also showed the Ambassador the $3.35 million sodium-processing facility, which was completed in November 2008 with U.S. assistance as the final step in the irreversible decommissioning of the BN-350 plutonium fast-breeder reactor (reftel A). At the entrance to the SPF, there is a large, brightly colored plaque acknowledging U.S. government support for the project. As reported in reftel A, the SPF is designed to process solidified residual sodium from the BN-350 reactor into sodium hydroxide. BUT LACK OF GEO-CEMENT STONE FACILITY DELAYS STORAGE ¶5. (SBU) Pugachev told the Ambassador that the SPF functions properly, and that earlier problems with escaping gas have been resolved. The government previously committed to building a geo-cement stone facility in which the sodium hydroxide solution generated by the SPF would be combined with blast-furnace slag and solidified in steel drums for long-term storage above ground. Unfortunately, despite ongoing assistance from the British government, construction of the geo-cement stone facility is on hold, due to a lack of government funding. This, in turn, has delayed plans to put the radioactive waste in safe, long-term storage. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE BN-350 REACTOR ASTANA 00001222 002.2 OF 003 ¶6. (SBU) The building housing the reactor is remarkable for its complete lack of distinguishing features: it is simply a series of faded yellow rectangular cement blocks stacked one on top of another in a functional yet uninspired Soviet style, flanked by red and white striped concrete cooling towers. Nevertheless, standing outside this nondescript building, which produced weapons grade material at the height of the Cold War and has since been decommissioned with the help of U.S. nuclear scientists, one cannot help but be struck by the irony of fate. FROM PLUTONIUM TO HEAT, POWER, AND WATER ¶7. (U) Now that the BN-350 breeder reactor has been decommissioned, MAEC's main business is running a combined heat-, power-, and water-producing complex that provides electric power and potable water to the populated areas and enterprises of Mangistau oblast (province) and Atyrau oblast. The power complex includes three combined heat and power (CHP) plants that generate up to 500 megawatts of electricity, a desalinization plant that produces up to 40,000 cubic meters of distillate per day (or 15 percent of Aktau's potable water consumption),heating mains and pipelines with central water supply units, a power transmission line with substations, a water intake structure, repair works, a petroleum storage depot, a fuel-oil storage tank, and other infrastructure facilities. MAEC is also considering constructing a new dry gas power plant with a capacity of 200 megawatts. MAEC GENERAL DIRECTOR DISCUSSES NUCLEAR POWER PLANT... ¶8. (SBU) Following the tour, the Ambassador met with MAEC General Director Utebayev, who was appointed to his position four years ago by then-Minister of Industry and Trade Vladimir Shkolnik, a nuclear scientist who worked at MAEC for twenty years and is now the head of state nuclear company Kazatomprom (KAP). Utebayev told the Ambassador that he expects the government to move forward with stated plans to build a new nuclear power plant on site at MAEC. He said that preliminary engineering studies have already been done and they are now just waiting for a decree from Prime Minister Masimov authorizing construction. Utebayev said the government could save up to 20 percent in costs by building the plant at the MAEC, because much of the necessary infrastructure is already in place. PROMISES TO MEET 2010 DEADLINE... ¶9. (SBU) Regarding the transportation and storage of spent fuel from the BN-350 reactor, Utebayev said, "We have met all of the targets in our work plan and are moving ahead of schedule. We will meet our deadline to move all of the containers by the end of 2010." Utebayev thanked the Ambassador for the "world class" expertise and financial support provided by the U.S. government during the past several years, and promised to do his part to honor MAEC's international commitments. Commenting on the SPF project, Utebayev said the new facility works as designed, passed inspection by U.S. and U.K. experts, and is ready to load radioactive sodium waste. Unfortunately, according to Utebayev, the required geo-cement storage facility is not ready due to a lack of government funding. "We did our part," said a clearly frustrated Utebayev, "but now the project has stalled, because we are dependent on others." AND APPEARS TO BE UNDER SEVERE STRESS ¶10. (SBU) Utebayev, a competent technocrat and respected manager who appears to be in his forties, confided to the Ambassador that he has been under constant stress lately, not least because of the arrest and prosecution of former KAP president Mukhtar Dzhakishev, whom he considers a mentor (reftel D). (NOTE: Utebayev gave the Ambassador a copy of MAEC's latest annual report, which opens with an upbeat welcome in English from Dzhakishev. MAEC is 100 percent owned by Kazatomprom. END NOTE). Utebayev also said that he has been hounded for the past three years by the Prosecutor General for ASTANA 00001222 003.2 OF 003 allegedly engaging in monopolistic behavior regarding residential electricity prices, and for allegedly avoiding taxes on U.S. Government-provided technical and financial assistance. He said the government issued a decree allowing MAEC to set up a special legal entity for one year to transfer the assets received under U.S. government assistance programs to its balance sheet -- but he called this only a temporary solution, and does not expect his problems with the Prosecutor to disappear. (NOTE: As reported in ref E, the Ambassador raised the asset transfer issue with Prime Minister Masimov on July 22. END NOTE.) Utebayev at this point became visibly upset. "Don't they understand what kind of business this is?," he asked plaintively. "This is an atomic energy company. I cannot afford a single mistake. I have as my primary concern the safety and welfare of the entire population of Mangistau oblast. Don't they know that?" HOAGLAND