Six Nations Explore Nuclear Energy’s Future at IAEA Planning School in Kazakhstan

The Regional INPRO School on Strategic Planning for Sustainable Nuclear Energy, held from 21 September to 2 October 2026, brought together participants from Armenia, China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia and Uzbekistan.

Decisions about nuclear energy reach far beyond the construction of a power plant, shaping how a country supplies electricity, manages waste and invests in infrastructure for decades. For 23 nuclear professionals from six countries, a recent IAEA school in Almaty, Kazakhstan, offered a chance to work through those decisions and examine what different nuclear energy choices could mean at home.

The Regional INPRO School on Strategic Planning for Sustainable Nuclear Energy, held from 21 September to 2 October 2026, brought together participants from Armenia, China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia and Uzbekistan. Their training came as the IAEA's projections for new nuclear power capacity rose for a sixth consecutive year, placing greater importance on the careful planning needed to turn expansion goals into workable national programmes.

Looking Beyond the Next Power Plant

Countries considering larger nuclear programmes or new reactor technologies face questions that cannot be answered by comparing electricity output alone. They need to understand how future nuclear energy systems could meet growing demand, fit national priorities and remain sustainable over their operating lives.

The two-week school gave participants practical experience with IAEA approaches designed to support those assessments. Lectures, hands-on exercises and group work connected long-term planning methods with scenarios that required participants to weigh different options and explain their choices.

Maxim Gladyshev, the IAEA nuclear engineer who led the school, described the training as an opportunity for professionals to build experience with tools that support informed decisions and consider how to use them in their own countries.

For Kazakhstan, hosting the school carried particular relevance as the country considers decisions with consequences stretching decades into the future. Sayabek Sakhiyev, Director General of the Institute of Nuclear Physics, said the event gave the institute an opportunity to contribute to professional dialogue, knowledge exchange and stronger international cooperation.

Working Through the Choices Together

Participants used the Nuclear Energy System Economics Support Tool (NEST), nuclear energy system simulators and the INPRO Key Indicators for Innovative Nuclear Energy Systems (KIND) to assess and compare possible pathways for nuclear development. The exercises encouraged them to examine economic questions alongside national priorities and sustainability considerations.

Some of the most practical work took the form of simulated national consultations, with participants stepping into the roles of regulators, utilities, technology vendors, investors, members of the public and policy makers. Each role brought a different set of concerns to discussions about how a nuclear energy system should develop.

Working in groups, participants drew up transition roadmaps and used the approaches introduced during the lectures to analyse and justify their proposed options. They presented their conclusions at the end of the training, bringing together the technical assessment and stakeholder discussions behind their decisions.

Oyunsuvd Batsukh of the Mongolian University of Science and Technology said the real-world case studies and interactive discussions helped deepen her understanding of the subject.

"We plan to actively apply the knowledge gained and the methodological materials provided in our day-to-day work," she said.

Taking the Learning Back Home

The school forms part of the IAEA's International Project on Innovative Nuclear Reactors and Fuel Cycles, known as INPRO. Established in 2000, the project provides assessment methods, analytical tools and a forum for international cooperation on sustainable nuclear energy development.

Its work covers global and regional nuclear energy scenarios, innovations, sustainability assessments and strategies, as well as dialogue and outreach. The INPRO Methodology examines long-term sustainability across six areas: economics, infrastructure, waste management, environmental impacts, proliferation resistance, and reactor and fuel cycle safety.

Around 400 participants from more than 50 countries have attended INPRO Schools since 2021, building experience that can support planning within their national institutions.

Member States can request further help through the INPRO Advisory Service, which offers tailored assistance with applying the project's methods and tools to national nuclear energy system assessments and related decisions. For professionals returning from Almaty, that support offers a way to carry the classroom exercises into the detailed work of evaluating their countries' nuclear energy options.