Uzbekistan and Russia will sign the nuclear plant construction contract before 2020, said Uzatom’s general director Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov on the margins of the AtomExpo international forum in Sochi.
“In line with the signed roadmap and the schedule, we plan to enter into a turnkey general contract with the Rosatom before the year-end,” he said.
At the same time, Mirzamakhmudov did not elaborate on the total project cost, since it "depended on the negotiations that are ongoing."
Today he added that Uzbekistan will decide on the potential site for construction within a month. “Reports are being studied by our partners in the State Corporation Rosatom, following which the site will be chosen where engineering studies will begin based on the technical design of the future NPP,” he said.
The first nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan will consist of two “3+” generation VVER-1200 power units with a capacity of 1,200 MW each. The facility is scheduled to be commissioned until 2028.
Uzbekistan has the capacity to generate a total of 14,000 megawatts of energy, 86% of which comes from thermal power plants. By 2030, the demand for electricity will reach 20 thousand megawatts. However, 84% of TPPs were commissioned nearly half a century ago, which significantly impacts their efficiency.
“We are trying to diversify our electricity generation sources thorugh renewable energy, hydroelectric power plants, but the population is growing and according to our estimates these steps will not be enough to cope with future demand and therefore we want to build a nuclear plant,” he concluded.
