Kazakhstan Decides on First Nuclear Power Plant's Name

Kazakhstan’s future nuclear power plant — its first — has officially been given the name “Balqash (Balkhash) Atomic Power Station,” Orda.kz reports.

The naming competition concluded a month ago, and more than 27,000 citizens took part.

According to the Atomic Energy Agency:

At the Competition Committee meeting, the 100 most popular names were reviewed. The name 'Balqash (Balkhash - Ed.) Atomic Electric Station' was proposed by 882 citizens, and it took first place in the final popularity ranking, becoming the competition winner.

The agency added that naming major energy facilities after their geographic location follows global practice.

In total, 27,157 Kazakhstanis over the age of 16 submitted entries. Only one name could be submitted per participant.

The competition received 10,460 unique suggestions. Submissions in Cyrillic, Latin script, and using synonyms were all considered.

Proposals were evaluated based on:

• Historical and cultural relevance
  
• Alignment with the image of nuclear energy
  
• Memorability and ease of pronunciation
  
• Uniqueness and originality

The official spellings are:

• Kazakh: Балқаш
  
• Russian: Балхаш
• English: Balkhash/Balqash, depending on the origin language (Kazakh/Russian)

As previously reported, the first nuclear power plant will be built near the village of Ulken in the Almaty region.

A second plant is also planned for the same area.

Original Author: Alexandra Mokhireva