Federal Nuclear Power Agency chief Sergei Kiriyenko said the facility could be built in the southwestern Kazakh port of Aktau, to get maximum benefit from the surviving infrastructure of an old Soviet-era BN-350 fast breeder reactor.
Kiriyenko, who is visiting Kazakhstan as part of a Russian government delegation led by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, said a modular reactor employing technology used in nuclear-powered submarines could now be built at the site. The sides have agreed to jointly invest in the new reactor's development, but no schedule for the project has been drawn up yet, he said.
Russia, which boasts the world's best-developed uranium conversion and enrichment facilities, regards Kazakhstan, the second largest producer of uranium, as one of its key strategic partners in the nuclear industry, Kiriyenko said.
"Kazakhstan and Russia are leaders in the sector, and integration will enable us to enhance our positions on the world market," he said.
According to PM Fradkov, Russia and Kazakhstan are also considering setting up joint ventures in the chemical and petrochemical industries.
"We have plans to set up chemical and petrochemical enterprises [together]," he said after talks with his Kazakh counterpart, Karim Masimov.
The Russian premier said Kazakhstan is seeking to increase the amount of crude pumped via the Atyrau-Samara pipeline to an annual 20-25 million metric tons (147-184 million bbl), from the current 15 million tons (110 million bbl).
The Atyrau-Samara line, which is linked to Russia's pipeline system, is one of Kazakhstan's three export pipelines through which Kazakh oil transits Russia en route to world markets. The two others include the Kenkyak-Orsk pipeline, transporting oil to a Russian refinery in Orsk, and CPC, which runs from Kazakhstan's Tengiz oilfield to Russia's Black Sea terminal at the port of Novorossiisk.
Fradkov said the two post-Soviet neighbors are set to boost cooperation in high-tech sectors to diversify bilateral trade, which, according to him, grew by over 30% year-on-year to $13 billion in 2006.
"But there have been no major changes in the structure of trade, and exports are still dominated by commodities," he said.
Fradkov praised the current level of Russian-Kazakh cooperation in the aerospace sector, and said the sides would continue using the Baikonur space center, in southern Kazakhstan, for their joint space programs.
"We are implementing collaborative projects such as Baiterek and KazSa... [Baikonur] is a good space center, which should be maintained and developed through joint effort," he said.
Baikonur is Russia's main launch pad to space, used for commercial and scientific launches. The country leases the Soviet-era space center, built in the 1950s, under an agreement signed with the Kazakh government in 1994, following the Soviet Union's collapse.
A number of bilateral accords in the nuclear industry, space and trade will be signed during the Russian president's scheduled visit to Kazakhstan in May, Fradkov announced.
