Russia’s ambassador to Mongolia has told the Izvestia newspaper that he hoped Mongolia would order a nuclear power station for a planned new city, Nuclear Engineering International reports.

Ambassador Alexey Evsikov said the plant could be built near the proposed city of New Karkhorum, and that an agreement to that effect may be signed early next year.

The city would be sited some 400km west of the present capital of Ulaanbaatar, on the site of the ancient Mongol capital.

Russian president Vladimir Putin discussed the plant during a visit to Mongolia last month.

Ambassador Evsikov said: “The parties agreed to draft an appropriate intergovernmental agreement. We hope that we will be able to sign it in the first half of next year.”

He added: “We hope that the project will be the beginning of active Russian-Mongolian cooperation in the field of peaceful nuclear energy, and will also lay the foundation for a new modern technological sector of the economy for Mongolia.”

New Karkhorum

Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh announced the New Karkhorum project last year.

The idea is to take pressure off Ulaanbaatar, which is now home to around half the country’s population of 3.5 million.

That has led to social and economic challenges and greater disaster risk.

In August this year, a group of Chinese engineering and construction companies won an international competition to create a conceptual city plan.

It would be located near the remains of Karkhorum, founded by Genghis Khan and an important node on the Silk Road between China and Eurasia.

It was the capital of the Mongol Empire between 1235 and 1260, and of the Northern Yuan dynasty in the 14th and 15th centuries.

The ruins of the city can be found in the Övörkhangai Province of modern-day Mongolia, close to the town of Kharkhorin and the Erdene Zuu monastery. These ruins are located in the upper part of the Orkhon Valley, which is a Unesco world heritage site.