Uzbekistan and Russia are preparing to sign a contract for the construction of a nuclear power plant, TASS reported with reference to the head of Rosatom Alexey Likhachev.

According to him, the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down work processes, but work on the contract for the construction of the station is at the final stage.

In 2019, in our understanding, we reached all the main decisions. The pandemic has stopped many processes, but I cannot call the Uzbek project a stopped project. Work on the contract for the construction of a nuclear power plant is at the final stage,” Likhachev said.

The director general of Rostatom added that the development of the energy project continues, and additional proposals on low-power power units and personnel training have been submitted to the Uzbek side.

“Work on the contract continues quite intensively, and I think that, in general, we are not far from signing the contract,” he noted.

Atomic answer

In 2018, Uzbekistan and Russia began negotiations on the nuclear power plant project. Under the terms of the agreement reached, Rosatom will build two VVER-1200 units with a capacity of 1.2 GW each. The site is located on the shore of Lake Tuzkan in the Jizzakh region.

As it was previously reported, construction will take about 6 years. Uzbekistan hopes to use nuclear power plants to cover the electricity shortage and save gas. Since the country is one of the top 5 uranium producers, problems with fuel for the project are not expected.

Former Energy Minister Alisher Sultanov, in an interview in 2020, emphasized the environmental friendliness of nuclear power plants, as well as the safety of VVER-1200 reactors. Other experts in the field of ecology and energy also spoke about the importance and benefits of nuclear power plants for Uzbekistan.

The topic of Rosatom’s participation in the construction of new nuclear energy facilities was also discussed in April at the ministerial level. The head of the Ministry of Energy, Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov, then received Russian Deputy PM Alexander Novak.