Uzbekistan plans to involve international engineers in nuclear power plant construction
Uzbekistan has proposed creating a joint venture with leading international engineering companies to manage the construction of its first nuclear power plant, a project being implemented with the participation of Russia’s Rosatom. The initiative is intended to strengthen project management, technical supervision, and independent assessment of technological solutions.
Construction oversight
As OilPrice reports, citing Eurasianet, on September 2 the press service of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev released an update on the construction of the nuclear power plant. The statement referred to a possible joint venture with international engineering companies, but Rosatom was not mentioned.
On June 4, Mirziyoyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the leader of an aggressor state, took part in a ceremonial laying of the first nuclear reactor complex in Uzbekistan. In January, the country’s authorities postponed the start of construction, which had previously been scheduled for March.
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Cost and localization
The project envisages the construction of two VVER-1000 reactors with a capacity of 1 gigawatt each and two RITM-200N reactors with a capacity of 55 megawatts each. Infrastructure and housing are also planned for plant employees and their families, totaling up to 33,000 people.
The total cost of the project is estimated at $9.5 billion, while the financing issue remains unresolved. According to preliminary estimates, the share of local production amounts to 21%, or $1.9 billion. Mirziyoyev set the task of increasing it to at least 30%, assigning national enterprises 65% of construction and installation work, and involving 7,000 local workers and specialists. To this end, officials were instructed to prepare a plan for a production complex near the nuclear power plant site, where construction materials and components for the plant will be manufactured.
