Page 5 - FSUOGM Week 40 2019

FSUOGM COMMENTARY FSUOGM
Nuclear power without seawater
As part of the Tashkent current administration’s plans to boost energy generation and diversify the mix available to average citizens, the country is embarking on its first nuclear power station in co-operation with Russia that is supplying the technology.
In conversation with Uzatom, the new gov- ernment-controlled agency in charge of the new nuclear sector, the decision was made with haste to begin the programme in 2018. That, along with the growing population and increased power consumption during summer months due to climate change, has led to a pressing need to overhaul pretty much the entire country’s infrastructure.
But Uzbekistan is serious about building a nuclear industry, with a new committee being created to facilitate and oversee its expansion over the next few years. It has also said that, despite the lack of interest from Western indus- try partners such as France and others, it would be building the first power plant with Russian experts. The common lingua franca of Russian, still prevalent in the country, would likely expe- dite the project as well.
“Uzbekistan is one of two double-landlocked countries...the other being Liechtenstein,” Energy Minister Alisher Sultanov told the press delegation on the serious issue of water use for the nuclear power plant (NPP). According to the minister, water from a nearby lake would be used for cooling the plant, with it then being treated. Uzbekistan was ranked at 152nd out of 180 listed nations in terms of water avaialblity, having 531.25 cubic metres of renewable internal freshwater resources per capita. Given its unique situation in Central Asia, the country is heavily dependent on its neighbours such as Tajikistan for water and carefully managing the flow for projects like the first nuclear power station is vital to its success.
‘Value-added’ future dreams
During our trip around the country I repeatedly heard the phrase “value-added” by company executives and officials. Indeed, it appears that the process of squeezing out extra products from limited resources looks to be a key part of the president’s plans for reforming the economy. Money has been poured into the gas separation plant built upon the crest of a cliff of the long-for- gotten Aral Sea, which now produces polypro- pylene, polyethylene and hessian bags for export around the region and further afield. And more divested industries, and their associated compa- nies, are now under construction in the Navoi region.
Newly appointed Energy Minister Sultanov, whose recently formed ministry is based out of the building of the national oil and gas concern Uzbekneftgaz in Tashkent, said that his duty was to reform the energy mix of his country. From offloading non-core assets to splitting the main gas corporation into four separate companies, to allowing foreign players, including the likes of Total and others, to have a vested industry in
the country, he said: “We see a lot of change in three years, we couldn’t imagine we would do this three years ago.”
In his interview with bne IntelliNews and other journalists Sultanov said that the country had implemented major reforms, including the unbundling of the gas giant, which is his ulti- mately responsibility, to create new gas explora- tion and upgrade infrastructure. He mentioned the situation in the country was previously one of complacency and noted that he had a lot of resistance from people with vested interests against disassembling the old set-up.
Digging deeper, Sultanov remarked:” We’re all human beings, I’m not blaming anyone, and we were used to the way the system operated and the first thing was to change ourselves.” He fur- ther noted that he believed that if a company was not going to survive the transition from pseu- do-Soviet management and organisation, “Then sobeit.”™
Week 40 09•October•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P5