Kyrgyzstan Aims to Restore All Uranium Tailings Dumps

Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov highlighted the critical issue of uranium waste during the People’s Kurultai (national congress), stressing the ongoing efforts to rehabilitate radioactive tailing dumps throughout the country, The Caspian Post reports citing foreign media.

According to Japarov, many tailing dumps were constructed during the Soviet era along riverbanks and in headwaters used by local communities for domestic water supply.

“We turned to Russia, as the legal successor of the USSR, for assistance. Rosatom allocated RUB 2.1 billion ($20 million). Work is now underway to relocate radioactive waste from hazardous areas to safer locations,” Japarov stated.

Japarov highlighted the completion of uranium waste reclamation in Issyk-Kul Oblast, where nuclear waste had posed a threat to Lake Issyk-Kul. Without intervention, the region faced the risk of an ecological disaster. Efforts in Naryn region are also nearing completion, and attention will soon turn to tailing dumps in southern Kyrgyzstan. Local residents have noted that uranium mined in this area was used in the first Soviet atomic bomb.

The tailing dump in Jalal-Abad region is particularly concerning due to its potential impact on neighboring Uzbekistan. Toxic waste from the site threatens the region’s ecology through contamination of a local river.

Russian companies tasked with reclaiming five tailing dumps in Naryn and Jalal-Abad regions will be exempt from taxes, as previously reported by The Times of Central Asia. This collaboration is part of an agreement to address Kyrgyzstan’s most dangerous uranium waste sites​.

According to Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Emergency Situations, the country is home to 92 burial sites containing toxic and radioactive materials.