Russia is building Uzbekistan nuclear power plants near the border with Kazakhstan on the shores of Lake Tuzkan and near the Shardara reservoir — a source of drinking water for a city nearby.
Last year marked an end of an era for Germany which decommissioned its last nuclear reactor. Not long after, Turkey announced its first Russian nuclear power plant going online.
Countries like Canada have enjoyed almost “endless” nuclear power going to the electricity grid, along with hydro-electric power and natural gas. Hydro-electric power in Canada is so ubiquitous that Canadians typically say hydro instead of electricity.
But nuclear has its risks and most environmentalists are pushing for renewables from solar energy, wind, geothermal over nuclear which continues to pose threats from accidents, and emit radiation thousands of years after the nuclear rods are spent.
Despite the World Bank and Masdar’s push with financing mechanisms from Canada to advance solar energy in Uzbekistan, Russia – hoping to get a strong foothold in the once Communist and now autocratically-run nation has declared that it will build a nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan.
It will be the first such project in post-Soviet Central Asia, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said on Monday at a meeting with visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The nuclear deal aims to showcase Russia’s ability to export for energy during western sanctions.
Mirziyoyev said Tashkent will buy more oil and gas from Russia and described Putin’s visit as “historic”.
“It heralds the beginning of a new age in the comprehensive strategic partnership and alliance relations between our countries,” he said.
Putin also called Tashkent Moscow’s “strategic partner and reliable ally”.
In a report published by the Kremlin, the Russian state nuclear firm Rosatom will build up to six nuclear reactors with a capacity of 55 megawatts each in Uzbekistan. Russia currently dominates the nuclear supply chain market.
According to the Climate Action Network, Uzbekistan plans to build a nuclear power plant 40 km from the border with Kazakhstan and the country’s most populous Turkestan region.
Construction is planned in the Jizzakh region on the shores of Lake Tuzkan. Next to it, just a few tens of kilometers away, is the Shardara reservoir — a source of drinking water for the whole city, as well as a reservoir of strategic importance, located on the transboundary Syr Darya River, pictured below by NASA.
Local activists constantly talk about the fact that the area is seismically active. Despite this, the authorities declare that there are no risks of building and operating a nuclear power plant, referring to the results of the studies.
Russia experienced the worst possible effects from nuclear energy: the Chernobyl disaster (1986) which caused serious radiation sickness and contamination. Between 50 and 185 million curies of radionuclides escaped into the atmosphere. Millions of acres of forest and farmland were contaminated, livestock was born deformed, and humans suffered long-term negative health effects.
Serious nuclear power plant accidents also include the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan (2011), the Three Mile Island accident in the US (1979), and the SL-1 accident in the US (1961).
According to Greenpeace, nuclear energy has no place in a safe, clean, sustainable future: “Nuclear energy is both expensive and dangerous, and just because nuclear pollution is invisible doesn’t mean it’s clean. Renewable energy is better for the environment, the economy, and doesn’t come with the risk of a nuclear meltdown.”
Greenpeace held die-ins in Turkey in 2015 to oppose nuclear energy, with the effects only prolonging the development, not stopping it.
Citizens in Uzbekistan do not enjoy freedom of speech so we can expect there to be no dissent against nuclear energy. Interesting to see how Syr Dayra River people will react.
