Baku, Azerbaijan, June 25
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
The Government of Uzbekistan, Rosatom and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are working on an agreement on design, construction and operation of a nuclear power plant, Uzbek Gazeta.uz media outlet reported citing Head of the Department for Strategic Development of Uzbekenergo Eso Sadullayev as saying at the conference dedicated to reforming the electricity sector held in Tashkent on June 25.
The new nuclear power plant is expected to consist of two 1,200-megawatt power units each and to have a total capacity of 2,400 megawatts. The final location of the station will be determined later.
The Uzbekenergo representative said that about 10 sites throughout the country, where construction could be profitable economically and in terms of electrical load, were considered.
“We considered construction in the central part of the energy system (Tashkent region), in the eastern part (Fergana Valley), Samarkand-Bukhara part, in Surkhandarya (southern regions). We need to carefully study the future site, including its engineering facilities. There should be supply of natural gas, electric networks, railway, etc. The decision will be made to get minimum cost and maximum reliability,” Eso Sadullayev explained.
The exact terms of the project are unknown, however, according to Eso Sadullaev, construction usually takes five years, after which the nuclear power plant will operate under the supervision of specialists from Rosatom and the IAEA for two more years.
“We are taking steps to move away from strong dependence on hydrocarbon fuels in the long term, to provide cheap electricity for the entire population and sectors of the economy, since electricity consumption is forecasted to increase twofold by 2030,” the Uzbekenergo representative said.
Uzbek Ambassador to Russia Bakhrom Ashrafkhanov earlier said that Tashkent and Moscow had reached an agreement on construction of a nuclear power plant (NPP) in Uzbekistan.
In mid-April 2018, during the opening of the Kandym gas processing complex, the president of Uzbekistan said that an agreement on construction of the first NPP in the region will be signed with Russia until the end of 2018.
The Russian side offers Uzbekistan to build a station consisting from two modern generation 3+ VVER-1200 units. The project of a similar NPP, which Rosatom is building in Bangladesh, costs roughly $13 billion, $11.3 billion of which is provided by Russia as a state export credit.
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