Agreements represent step forward for nuclear in Uzbekistan, says Uzatom

Tuesday, 10 December 2024

Each of the documents represents an important step forward in establishing productive cooperation and sharing experience in the use of atomic energy, Uzbekistan’s Uzatom atomic energy agency said.

The following documents were signed during the one-day Prospects for the Use of Nuclear Energy for Peaceful Purposes in Sustainable Development of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Member States conference on 5 December in Samarkand:

1. Additions to the Framework Country Program between the Atomic Energy Agency under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan (Uzatom) and the International Atomic Energy Agency;
2. Memorandum of Understanding between Uzatom and World Nuclear Association;
3. Memorandum of Cooperation between Nuclear Power Plant Construction Directorate and China National Nuclear Corporation Overseas;
4. Memorandum of Cooperation between the Uzatom and the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan;
5. Agreement between the Uzatom and Assystem Engineering & Operation Services;
6. Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation between the Branch of the Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education “National Research Nuclear University MEPhI” in Tashkent and the Research Institute for the Development of Digital Technologies and Artificial Intelligence.

Uzbekistan is the world’s fifth-ranking uranium supplier and President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev told the conference in his keynote address that ensuring reliable, safe, cost-effective and ecologically friendly energy sources is a top priority in the large-scale reforms carried out in “New Uzbekistan”. The country’s generation is a top priority for the country: its generation is currently dominated by natural gas, and it also imports electricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, but demand is expected to double by 2030.

Infrastructure work began earlier this year for the construction of a six-unit small modular reactor nuclear power plant to be built in the Jizzakh region, based on the 55 MW RITM-200N pressurised water reactor – the first export order for the Russian design.