Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - A delegation of Uzbekistan takes part in the International Conference on Nuclear Security held by the IAEA on 10-14 February 2020, at the organization’s headquarters in Vienna.

At the opening of the forum, Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), spoke.

During the conference, considerable attention was paid to the reports of representatives of IAEA member countries. The Minister of Energy Alisher Sultanov spoke at the forum from Uzbekistan.

As was emphasized in the speech, “over the years since independence, the Republic of Uzbekistan is a staunch and consistent supporter of the processes of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and also strictly fulfills its obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Agreement between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the IAEA on the application of guarantees. ”

It was also noted that the Government of Uzbekistan, on the basis of a deep and comprehensive analysis of further development of the energy sector to ensure sustainable economic growth of the country, as well as to meet the growing demand for electricity, developed a proposal to create its own nuclear energy.

In preparing this proposal, many factors were taken into account, including the need to ensure energy security, reduce the amount of carbon emissions into the environment, and others.

The decision to build the first nuclear power plant served as an impetus for the development of activities to create nuclear infrastructure. Thus, the law “On the Use of Atomic Energy for Peaceful Purposes” was adopted, and legislation on the use of atomic energy is being improved. The Concept of the development of nuclear energy in the Republic of Uzbekistan for the period 2019-2029 was adopted, and the Strategy for the development of human resources for the country’s nuclear energy program.

The Minister of Energy noted the productive cooperation with the IAEA, in the framework of which in the first half of 2020 it is planned to hold 15 national seminars with the participation of highly qualified IAEA experts. In January, in particular, a seminar was held in Tashkent on issues of accession to the Convention on Nuclear Safety.

An important part of cooperation with the IAEA is the study of the experience of countries with developed and developing nuclear energy, which is very important for a newcomer country in the development of a nuclear energy program, which is the Republic of Uzbekistan. To this end, visits of delegations of Uzbekistan to the nuclear power plants of France, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine, Japan took place.

In order to comprehensively assess the state of the national nuclear infrastructure and ensure the safety, reliability and sustainability of the nuclear energy program, the Republic of Uzbekistan requested the implementation of the IAEA Integrated Review of Nuclear Infrastructure (INIR) mission in 2020, to be held in October 2020.