National Atomic Company Kazatomprom

National Atomic Company Kazatomprom (Kazatomprom) is a Kazakhstan based atomic energy company. The company is a national operator for the import and export of uranium, rare metals, nuclear fuel for power plants, special equipment and dual-purpose materials. Kazatomprom is a diversified company and its activities include exploration work, mining of natural uranium at south mining departments, production of uranium products, generation of electric and thermal power and water, output of nuclear fuel cycle products; construction of reactors and nuclear power plants; non-ferrous metallurgy and production of construction materials. The product line of the company includes uranium products, beryllium products, tantalum and niobium products. It is headquartered at city of Almaty, Kazakhstan.

The company also provides scientific, technical, technological and environment consultancy services to power industry. The company also provides training of skilled manpower for enterprises of the industry. Kazatomprom carries its operations through its joint ventures and affiliates. The company also has a major China-Kazakhstan joint venture operation.

In October 2009, AREVA SA entered into an agreement with the company to form a joint venture for marketing nuclear fuel.
Under the terms of the agreement, both the companies formed IFASTAR, in which AREVA will hold 51% stake and Kazatomprom will hold 49% stake. The new company will research the Asian market for selling integrated fuel packages to electric utilities operating in Asia. The integrated fuel packages include all front-end segments and a combination of Kazatomprom`s uranium resources and AREVA`s fuel technology. In addition, IFASTAR will also assess the technical and economical feasibility for the construction of a fuel manufacturing line (400 tU/year) located at Kazatomprom‘s Ulba metallurgical plant site in Ust-Kamenogorsk (Kazakhstan). IFASTAR is based in Paris. Following the assessments, IFASTAR will sell the products from the newly constructed fuel manufacturing line, whereas the fuel will be manufactured by another joint venture, in which Kazatomprom will hold 51% and AREVA will hold 49% stake.