Nuclear power in Uzbekistan

On 27 May 2024, during the state visit to Uzbekistan of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, Atomstroyexport (the engineering division of the state corporation Rosatom) and the State Unitary Enterprise “Directorate for Nuclear Power Plant Construction” under the Agency for Atomic Energy of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan signed a contract to build a six-unit small nuclear power plant (SNPP) in Uzbekistan. The two sides also signed a protocol launching the contract’s implementation. The project provides for an SNPP using RITM-200H pressurised water reactors with a combined capacity of 330 MW (six reactors of 55 MW each), built to Russian designs and technologies. The RITM-200H has a thermal capacity of 190 MW and an electrical capacity of 55 MW; the reactors have a service life of up to 60 years. The RITM-200H series was designed on the basis of the RITM-200 reactors, which were tested on Russian icebreakers in Arctic conditions.

The project will be carried out at a previously approved site near Lake Tuzkan in the Farish district of the Jizzakh region, which IAEA specialists inspected and confirmed meets the requirements. The first SNPP reactor will start up in 60 months (five years); subsequent reactors will be commissioned at six-month intervals, so the plant will not be fully operational before 2033. Preliminary work on the project reportedly began back in the summer, and at the end of August this year construction started on a shift-workers’ camp for the builders of the future nuclear plant. The camp will allow the area around the plant to be developed comprehensively, including cultural and educational projects and the construction of medical points for the population and other social facilities. Design documentation, including the project’s feasibility study, is currently being prepared.

Nuclear power in Uzbekistan

Of course, a six-unit small nuclear plant with a capacity of 330 MW is very little against Uzbekistan’s total generating capacity, which currently stands at around 13–15 GWh (at peak). According to Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov, Minister of Energy of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the plan is to raise the share of renewable energy to 40%, or 20 GW, of the country’s total generation by 2030. Renewables (solar and wind) are intermittent and depend on sun and wind, so baseload generation is needed. Baseload generation means gas- and coal-fired thermal power plants and hydropower. In his view, the 330 MW capacity of the small nuclear plant will be almost equal to 5 GW (5,000 MW) of energy from renewables. That is because renewables operate for roughly 1,800 hours a year depending on weather, whereas a nuclear plant runs a guaranteed 8,000 hours. The capacity factor at thermal and nuclear plants is above 90%, while for renewables it is 20–25%. In the longer term, therefore, large nuclear plants will also be needed — plants that run continuously regardless of the weather, provide baseload generation and so keep the power system as a whole stable.

Nuclear power in Uzbekistan

As for the advantages of building a nuclear plant, it has a multiplier effect on a country’s economic development. Nuclear power helps diversify a country’s energy supply, reducing dependence on coal and gas and freeing up valuable hydrocarbons for use in industry, including the gas-chemical sector. Besides being a clean source of energy, nuclear power also stabilises the power system, especially as alternative (renewable) sources expand, as noted above. Building a nuclear plant also drives a country’s scientific and technological development and creates new highly skilled jobs (nuclear engineers, physicists, power engineers, builders and so on), develops local industry, and reduces a country’s dependence on imported energy, strengthening its energy stability and security. Nuclear power also opens the way to breakthroughs and innovation in nuclear physics and technology, lifting a country onto a qualitatively new stage of development. By various estimates, one job created in building a nuclear plant creates more than ten jobs in related sectors of the economy.

Nuclear power in Uzbekistan

Many developing countries are pursuing nuclear power, including Middle Eastern countries with some of the world’s largest oil and gas resources, as well as other Central Asian states (Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan). Saudi Arabia plans to build up to 16 reactors with a combined capacity of 17.6 GW on its territory, with capital investment of more than $100 billion. The kingdom aims to cover almost 20% of its domestic electricity needs with power from new large and small nuclear plants within 15–17 years. In Türkiye, the state corporation Rosatom is building the Akkuyu plant on a build-own-operate basis. Akkuyu consists of four units with VVER-1200 water-water power reactors and a combined design capacity of 4,800 MW, due to be commissioned in 2025. In Egypt, Rosatom is also building the country’s first nuclear plant, El Dabaa, with a similar design capacity of 4,800 MW and four VVER-1200 reactors, as in Türkiye, near El Alamein.

Nuclear power in Uzbekistan

The first phase of the Bushehr nuclear plant, with a design capacity of 1,000 MW (unit No. 1), built by the state corporation Rosatom, reached full design capacity in 2012 in Iran. Rosatom is now building the plant’s second phase — units No. 2 and No. 3 with VVER-1000 reactors and a combined capacity of 2,100 MW — under the Bushehr-2 project. Unit 2 is due for completion in 2025 and unit 3 in 2027. According to open sources, Iran has also begun building its first nuclear plant, Karun, entirely designed and based on its own technology — a sign that Iran has left other Middle Eastern countries far behind in nuclear power. Iran plans to build five nuclear plants by 2041 (only one unit at Bushehr is currently operating).

Nuclear power in Uzbekistan

The Korean company KEPCO built the Barakah nuclear plant in the UAE, which consists of four units with APR-1400 pressurised water reactors (PWR) and a combined capacity of 5,600 MW (5.6 GW). The last unit was commissioned on 5 September 2024, according to open sources. Barakah was built to an American design similar to that of the largest US nuclear plant, Palo Verde. Barakah’s reactors are Generation III and are inferior to the Generation III+ reactors at Egypt’s El Dabaa plant, which Rosatom is building. Full commissioning of El Dabaa by 2028 will make Egypt the only Middle Eastern country with Generation III+ reactors. (I looked at nuclear plants by Middle Eastern country in more detail in the piece on Saudi Arabia’s nuclear programme.)

That is all for now on nuclear power in Uzbekistan.