Saida Mirziyoyeva meets with IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi

Saida Mirziyoyeva, Head of the Presidential Administration of Uzbekistan, met on June 4 with Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Mirziyoyeva announced the meeting on her Telegram channel.

According to her, the high-ranking guest arrived in Uzbekistan to attend the ceremony marking the start of construction of a nuclear power plant in Jizzakh region.

During the talks, the sides discussed cooperation with the agency on establishing Uzbekistan’s national nuclear energy infrastructure, developing nuclear medicine and training specialists for the sector.

Earlier, it was reported that Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin were expected to launch construction of the first power unit of the nuclear power plant being built in Uzbekistan by Russia’s Rosatom corporation.

For reference, Uzbekistan and Russia signed an intergovernmental agreement on creating nuclear energy capacity in Uzbekistan in 2018. The agreement initially envisaged the construction of two power units, each with a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts. In 2025, the sides agreed to build six small units, each with a capacity of 55 megawatts. The project was later revised, and amendments to the contract were signed in March 2026.

Under the new agreement, Rosatom will build two large-capacity power units in Uzbekistan based on Russia’s VVER-1000 reactors, as well as two small nuclear units based on RITM-200 reactors, each with a capacity of 55 megawatts. The plant could become the first small-capacity nuclear power plant built by Russia abroad.

At present, none of the five Central Asian countries has a nuclear power plant. In June last year, Kazakhstan selected Rosatom as the head of an international consortium to build the country’s first nuclear power plant. Russia plans to use its flagship Generation III+ VVER-1200 reactor for the project.

In May this year, Moscow and Astana signed an intergovernmental agreement on the construction of the Balkhash nuclear power plant, which could have a capacity of 2.4 gigawatts and cost about $16.5 billion.