The construction of a nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan is not in the pipeline, according to a statement released by the country’s State Joint Stock Company Uzbekenergo on its website.
The statement comes hot on the heels of local media reports the government is considering tobuild a nuclear power plant in the coming years.
According to Uzbekenergo, some two dozen major investment projects are currently beingcarried out nationwide. These include the creation of new facilities and the modernisationand reconstruction of existing ones.
Based on a decree signed by Uzbek President Islam Karimov, projects include the modernisation and development of thermal power plants (TPP) with input operational capacity in the amount of 2,329 megawatts, as well as nine hydropower projectswith capacity increase in the amount of 63.8 megawatts by next year.
The construction of combined-cycle gas turbines with total installed capacity of 1,775 megawatts is already underway. This is in line with Uzbekenergo’s existing plants,Tashkent, Tolimarjon, Navoi (TPP) and Tashkent Combined Heat and Power Plants (CHP).
Uzbekistan is also working to boost the use of alternative energy sources like solar and windenergy.
Meanwhile, the country’s reserves of uranium in the country total approximately 185,800 tonnes, according to the Uzbek State Committee on Geology and Mineral Resources. All of it exported.
For domestic use, about 90% of all electricity is produced by 10 thermal power stations (11.6m kilowatts) and some 45 power plants (13, 000 megawatts). Compared to 2012, production ofelectricity has jumped 3.2% up to 54.207 billion kilowatt-hours in Uzbekistan.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/no-nuclear-plans-uzbekistan