ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- A group of Kazakh activists has announced the creation of "a platform" to oppose a government plan for the construction of a nuclear power plant as a nationwide referendum on the issue next month nears.
Environmentalists Qaisha Atakhanova, Gulsim Kakimzhanova, and Vadim Ni, energy expert Aset Nauryzbaev, and political analyst Asel Iztaeva told journalists in the Central Asian country's largest city, Almaty, on September 10 that they had created a group called There is No Need for NNP.
The activists said the goal of their group is to show what they called the opinion of the majority in Kazakhstan, who are openly against the plant's construction.
They also stressed that if a plant is constructed in partnership with a foreign country -- four companies are currently on the shortlist -- Kazakhstan could lose some of its sovereignty.
"All companies that may be involved in the project are foreign state companies. There are no private companies among them, and the money will be allocated by the corresponding governments," Ni said.
"And it will not be us who will choose one of them. Other nations have been invited. Because of that, I would say, it is not just a political issue, it is about geopolitics.... This is the nature of nuclear energy issues. It is tied to powerful nations."
Talks of building a nuclear power station in Kazakhstan have been circulating for years, leading to questions regarding what countries would be involved in the project.
China's CNNC, South Korea's KHNP, France's EDF, and Russia's Rosatom have been named in media reports as possible constructors of a nuclear power plant.
Kazakh officials have avoided commenting directly, saying the decision would be made after the October 6 referendum.
Shortly before launching its ongoing invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia proposed that its Rosatom nuclear agency be Kazakhstan's main partner in such a project.
Many Kazakhs publicly reject the idea of Rosatom's involvement, citing the legacy of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and Russia's occupation of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine as examples of Moscow's attitude toward nuclear safety.
Also on September 10, a court in Almaty fined activist Abzal Dostiyarov for a YouTube clip questioning the plan for a nationwide referendum on the plant's construction.
Dostiyarov was found guilty of violating the law on holding public polls and ordered to pay a 55,350-tenge ($115) fine.
Dostiyarov insisted he is innocent, saying the video clip in question from a week earlier was not a poll.
Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev last week announced plans for a nationwide referendum on October 6 to gauge public support for the construction of a nuclear power plant.
Many Kazakhs expect the referendum to succeed, given the country's tightly controlled political environment.
But the push to build a new nuclear facility has been met by significant opposition despite apparent efforts to silence dissent on the issue. In recent weeks, several activists known for their stance against such a project have been prevented from attending public debates on the matter.
Nuclear power-related projects have been a controversial issue in Kazakhstan, where the environment was severely impacted by operations at the Soviet-era Semipalatinsk nuclear test site from 1949 to 1991, and the Baikonur spaceport, which is still operated by Moscow.