Astana, Kazakhstan (AFP) June 27, 2024
![](https://www.spxdaily.com/images-bg/kazakhstan-map-bg.jpg)
Kazakhstan will hold a referendum this year on whether to build what could become Central Asia's first nuclear power plant, the country's president said Thursday.
Nuclear power is a sensitive issue in Central Asia, which has a history of pollution from uranium mining and Soviet-era atomic weapons tests.
Kazakhstan is the world's largest exporter of uranium but shut its only small-scale r