BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 18. Uzbekistan is actively preparing for kicking off construction of its first nuclear power plant (NPP),General Director of the Agency for the Development of Nuclear Energy under the Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan Jurabek Mirzamahmudov, told Trend.
“We are carefully preparing for the implementation of the project, primarily in terms of personnel training, we send all our specialists to trainings and seminars in Russia,” Mirzamahmudov said.
According to him, the construction of the plant is estimated to take about 69 months.
“We have already completed engineering surveys at the construction site, but the most difficult stage is the preparatory one, which is reaching agreements. A full range of studies was carried out, a construction site was identified, which is in the Farish district (Jizzakh region),” Mirzamahmudov said.
He noted that in order to save water resources, it was decided to use the technology of dry cooling towers at the new plant. New technology such as small modular reactors (SMR) is also being explored.
The commissioning of the first nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan is scheduled for 2028. The cost of its construction is estimated at $11 billion. The nuclear power plant will consist of two 3+ generation power units with VVER-1200 reactors. The total installed capacity will be 2.4 GW.