El Salvador has become a benchmark for other nations on how to integrate Bitcoin (BTC) and use it for the progress of society. The small Central American nation adopted BTC as a legal tender in September this year and soon announced a clean Bitcoin mining facility powered by volcanic energy. The country mined its first Bitcoin in October this year as it continues to expand its mining facility. Now, Kazakhstan, the second-largest Bitcoin mining destination aims to one-up El Salvador in clean BTC mining.
Kazakhstan became the second-largest hash power contributor in the wake of the Chinese Bitcoin mining ban in May. The country now aims to boost its economy by facilitating a market for Bitcoin miners. However, the popularity of crypto mining in the country has led to power shortage and this has prompted the nations to look towards nuclear energy to facilitate clean BTC mining.
Kazakhstan President Sees Nuclear Power as a Great Alternative
Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in recent meetings with the bankers suggested the use of Nuclear energy to combat energy shortage. Amid growing concerns of power shortage, the small nation-state aims to expand its Bitcoin mining capacity and plans to invest over $1.5 billion in the next five years.
Kazakhstan has one of the richest uranium reserves and currently, nearly 90% of its electricity is produced via fossil fuels. A move towards nuclear energy seems feasible on paper, however, given that the country has shut down its last nuclear power plant back in 1999, it would take meticulous planning and infrastructure building to achieve the goal. The International Trade Administration has noted,
“Kazakhstan has some of the largest uranium deposits in the world and is the world’s largest uranium producer. Although plans have long existed to build additional nuclear power plants, little progress has been made on constructing these units. Kazakhstan’s economy is highly energy-intensive and uses two to three times more energy than the average for OECD countries,”
President Tokayev himself is in favor of reinitiating nuclear power projects. During an interview in September, Tokayev has said that they are in no hurry either, but if the need comes, it won’t take them long to build the infrastructure for it.
“I myself believe that it’s time to substantially consider this issue since Kazakhstan needs a nuclear power plant,”
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