Kazakhstan also announced that it wanted China to build a second plant, with Chinese leader Xi Jinping expected to visit the country next week for the Central Asia-China summit.

The vast, resource-rich Central Asian country and ally of its bigger neighbour Russia, supplies 43 percent of the world's uranium but struggles to generate enough electricity for domestic consumption.

"Rosatom has been named as the leader of the international consortium for the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan," the former Soviet republic's nuclear power agency said in a statement.

Later Saturday, the agency's head, Almasadam Satkaliev, said the country planned to sign a separate nuclear industry agreement with China.

"We want to see Chinese technology in Kazakhstan for the construction of another nuclear power plant," he said.

"The final decision will be made after reviewing all the necessary details" in upcoming talks with Chinese officials, he added.

Satkaliev said China's National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and Russia's Rosatom "objectively had the best bids" in the tender.

Russia's Rosatom welcomed the decision.

In a statement it promised "the construction of a nuclear power plant according to the most advanced and efficient project in the world, based on Russian technologies".

- Balancing out -

The first power plant, whose construction was approved in a referendum in late 2024, will be built near the half-abandoned village of Ulken on the lake Balkhash -- the second largest in Central Asia.

Authorities have not disclosed any details regarding the location of the second plant.

The nuclear agency said that the power plant will be state-owned and that "the risks of dependence on Russia's nuclear technologies are minimal, if not non-existent".

Moscow, formerly a sole dominant player in the region, has used its historical influence to maintain its leading position in Central Asia, while Beijing has invested billions of dollars as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.

The issue of nuclear power is sensitive in Kazakhstan, which still holds the grim memory of 450 Soviet nuclear tests conducted in the country between 1949 and 1989, which exposed 1.5 million people to radiation.