Page 17 - bne_newspaper_October_26_2018

Eurasia
October 26, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
Putin, Mirziyoyev launch project for Uzbekistan’s first nuclear plant
Kanat Shaku in Tashkent
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev on October 19 pressed a symbolic button together to launch a project to build Uzbekistan’s first nuclear power plant. Given that the Soviet-era nuclear plant in Kazakhstan was decommissioned in 2001 and is unlikely to be restored to operation, the facility is likely to be Central Asia's first new-era nuclear plant.
The Uzbek-Russian project will now conduct a geological survey to determine the best location for the planned 2.4 gigawatt nuclear power facility, to be operational by 2028 under current plans.
The launch of the project – but not the beginning of construction as some media reports dismissed by the Uzbek side have claimed – took place in a conference hall in Tashkent during a state visit made by Putin to Uzbekistan. In all, the visit fea- tured the signing of $20bn worth of contracts by Russian and Uzbek state entities and businesses.
The Uzbek government is targeting the generation of approximately 20% of the country's electricity from renewable energy sources by 2032. While Uzbekistan has previously announced plans for the manufacturing of photovoltaic solar power panels - including the work of the SkyPower global 1,000MW project - nuclear energy is set to account for much of the power (nuclear energy it- self is considered a renewable energy source, but the material used in nuclear power plants is not).
“We expect that about 15% of [energy] generation [within Uzbekistan] by 2030 will be accounted for by nuclear energy generation,” director general of the Uzbek state-run UzAtom nuclear energy company, Zhurabek Mirzakhmudov, told bne Intel-
Putin was making his first visit to Uzbekistan since Mirziyoyev took office in late 2016.
liNews on October 17. Uzbekistan has previously said that the first block of the nuclear power plant would be launched by 2028.
The project for the plant, planned to comprise of two “modern generation III + VVER-1200 units”, is also in line with Uzbekistan’s goal of boosting its energy exports to neighbouring countries, with a special focus on Afghanistan.
“[The power plant] will contribute to the energy stability not only of Uzbekistan, but of the entire region," Putin said, following the signing of con- tracts. He noted the plans to export energy pro- duced at the nuclear power plant.
The countries of Central Asia are set to reunite their “single Central Asian electric loop”, ac- cording to Mirzakhmudov. Under the rule of his predecessor, the late Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan – Central Asia’s most populous nation with 33mn people – withdrew from the Central Asian energy system in December 2009, breaking the “loop”. The country’s return to engagement with its regional neighbours allows for Soviet-era infra- structural interlinkages to be put back into use.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on October 16 that the event with Putin and Mirziyoyev would mark the beginning of construction works for the nuclear plant, but Mirzakhmudov said that Putin’s visit to the Uzbek capital would only mark “the beginning of the project”, while construction was unlikely to start until at least 2020. And even that was an “optimistic” estimate, Mirzakhmudov pointed out.
UzAtom and Rosatom, which will eventually han- dle the construction of the nuclear power plant,