Nuclear power industry becomes the main topic of the international energy conference of Uzbekistan

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The first International Energy Conference of Uzbekistan, organized by the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Agency for the Development of Nuclear Energy (Uzatom Agency), was held on 16 May 2019 as part of the Power Uzbekistan 2019 exhibition.

The main topic of the conference was the project to build the first nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan. At the plenary session “Nuclear power engineering - the impetus for the country’s socio-economic development”, which opened the conference, the participants discussed the role of nuclear power in ensuring the sustainable development of the country.

“Energy in Uzbekistan has always been an area of advanced technologies and innovations, because energy is the pivot of the development of the entire economy of the country, and therefore the growth of the well-being of our people. An absolutely new structure has been created, such as the Ministry of Energy, imparting to it the functions of a generator for the development of the fuel and energy industry and ensuring the country’s energy security,” First Deputy Minister of Energy of Uzbekistan, Director General of Uzatom Agency, Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov said.

The panel session speakers included Behzod Yuldashev, President of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Alexander Lokshin, President of the ASE Group of Companies, Alexander Ilkshin, Head of the Planning and Capacity Building Department of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ilze Escobar, Director of the World Nuclear University at Patricia Wiilland of the World Nuclear Association, Deputy Head of the Federal Environmental, Industrial and Nuclear Supervision Service A eksey Ferapontov, as well as president of Atomic Energy Worley Alexander Superfin.

“For the first nuclear power plant (NPP) in the country, Uzbekistan chose the Rosatom evolutionary technology - the latest generation VVER-1200 power units“ 3+ ”, which fully comply with all modern international safety requirements. Our technologies have already chosen such countries as Bangladesh, Belarus, Hungary, Egypt, Turkey and others. Nuclear generation is an important factor in ensuring the state’s energy security for the long term, and this is, in fact, the only available, reliable and environmentally friendly source of energy capable of providing stable basic generation, ”said Alexander Lokshin, First Deputy Director General of Rosatom.

During the conference, the speakers focused on the importance of the issue of human capital development for the nuclear industry. As part of the NPP construction project, personnel training is conducted in cooperation with partner organizations such as the State Corporation Rosatom, the IAEA and others. In the autumn of this year, the opening of a branch of the National Research Nuclear University MEPI in Tashkent is expected.

In the continuation of the conference, a seminar was held on the topic “Safety of Russian atomic technologies and the role of public acceptability in the development of atomic energy” organized by the State Corporation Rosatom. The participants spoke about the status of the NPP project in Uzbekistan and, importantly, about the experience of operating a Russian nuclear plant using the example of the Paks NPP in Hungary and the Novovoronezh NPP. A separate presentation was devoted to the current information work with the public in Uzbekistan, as an important component in the implementation of large infrastructure projects, which is a nuclear power plant of high power.