The first
stage involves excavation for the SNPP power unit with the RITM-200N reactor of
the Russian design, being built in the Farish district of Jizzakh Region,
Uzbekistan. For the plant, about 1.5 million cubic meters of earth will be
excavated, with the pit reaching a depth of 13 meters.
In Jizzakh region, on the site of the future SNPP, the construction machinery performed the first earth excavation in the presence of Pavel Bezrukov, Vice-President and Project Director for Nuclear Power Plant Construction in Uzbekistan at Atomstroyexport JSC, Abidjamila Kalmuratov, Director of the Nuclear Power Plant Construction Directorate State Enterprise, and Ulugbek Mustafayev, Head of the Region.
“Today marks a new chapter in the implementation of the nuclear generation project in Uzbekistan. As with all our overseas projects, the construction of the SNPP will see a high degree of localisation. The work is being done by Uzbek subcontractors. Rosatom will build the plant, which will serve for at least 60 years, and will provide all necessary support during its operation. We look forward to many decades of productive and mutually beneficial cooperation,” said Alexey Likhachev, Director General of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, at the event.
Currently,
the site is undergoing engineering surveys, design and construction of the
installation base. By the end of 2025, design documentation for the SNPP will
be developed and submitted for review to the Uzbek customer.
On May 27,
2024, during the state visit of President of the Russian Federation Vladimir
Putin to Uzbekistan and in the presence of leaders of both countries, a
protocol amending the intergovernmental agreement on the construction of a
nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan was signed. This expanded the scope of the
cooperation, which now includes building both high- and small-capacity nuclear
power plants of Russian design. Specifically, it refers to constructing a
small-capacity nuclear power plant in Jizzakh region, Uzbekistan.
On May 13,
2025, Rosatom began manufacturing reactor equipment: a specially alloyed steel
ingot weighing 205 tonnes was cast, from which the future RITM-200N reactor
vessel will be made.
On
September 26, 2025, in Moscow, during the international forum “World Atomic
Week,” documents were signed expanding cooperation between Rosatom State
Corporation and the Nuclear Energy Agency under the Cabinet of Ministers of the
Republic of Uzbekistan (Uzatom). The agreement confirmed what was decided by
the two countries’ leaders in early May this year: the project will comprise
two high-capacity power units with Generation 3+ VVER-1000 reactors, and two
power units with RITM-200N reactors, each with a capacity of 55 MW. The parties
also signed main contract terms for fuel supply to both the high- and
small-capacity nuclear power plants. The project will be the world’s first to
build both high- and small capacity nuclear power units on a single site.
The ceremony launched the practical implementation of the SNPP project in Uzbekistan. The parties plan to pour the “first concrete” for SNPP Unit 1 in Spring 2026.
