The NPP will consume 0.33% of the annual evaporation of Balkhash – expert

The water losses of Lake Balkhash for the needs of nuclear power plants will amount to only 0.33% of annual evaporation, Kazinform agency correspondent reports.

This was told by Amangeldy Nurla, a lecturer at the Department of Nuclear Physics of the L. Gumilev Eurasian National University.

— The annual water consumption in the cooling towers of a two-unit nuclear power plant with a capacity of 1200 MW is estimated at 0.063 billion cubic meters. The volume of Lake Balkhash is 108 billion cubic meters. The volume of evaporation from the surface of Lake Balkhash is 18.934 billion cubic meters per year. That is, the annual loss of water from Lake Balkhash for the needs of nuclear power plants is only about 0.33 percent of its natural evaporation," Amangeldy Nurlan said.

The scientist also explained about the environmental friendliness of nuclear power plants. According to Nurlan, burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — harmful substances. With the same volumes of electricity production at nuclear power plants and CHP plants of 1 GW, the CHP, together with energy, emits up to 120 thousand tons of sulfur oxide, up to 20 thousand tons of nitrogen oxide, up to 1,500 tons of fine ash, up to 3 million tons of carbon dioxide, up to 300-400 thousand tons of ash.

In addition, 60 reactors are being built in 15 countries around the world. Upon commissioning, these reactors will generate an additional 62,637 MW of electricity