Uzbekistan and Belarus are moving to strengthen bilateral cooperation in nuclear energy, following a high-level meeting in Minsk on August 5. The talks were hosted by Belarusian Energy Minister Denis Moroz and attended by a delegation from Uzbekistan’s Uzatom Atomic Energy Agency, led by Director Azim Akhmedkhadjaev.
Discussions covered a broad range of potential collaboration areas, including nuclear infrastructure development, specialist training, radioactive waste and spent fuel management, and integration of nuclear power into national energy systems.
“We welcome Uzbekistan’s decision to join the club of states using atomic energy for peaceful purposes and implementing a national nuclear program,” Moroz said, expressing Belarus’s readiness to share its experience.
The Uzbek delegation is expected to visit the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant in Ostrovets, where technical teams from both countries will explore concrete areas for cooperation.
Moroz emphasized that the launch of the Belarusian plant has bolstered national energy security and driven innovation in sectors such as electric transport and housing electrification. “The nuclear power plant has become a springboard for Belarus to reach a new technological level,” he said, adding that the facility complies fully with international safety standards.
Uzatom Director Akhmedkhadjaev commended Belarus’s progress in the nuclear sector, calling it “advanced and highly successful.” He expressed interest in involving Belarusian experts in Uzbekistan’s nuclear development efforts.
The Uzbek delegation also visited the dispatch control center of Belenergo, Belarus’s national energy company, to observe nuclear grid integration in practice.
Uzbekistan signed a contract with Russia’s Atomstroyexport, a subsidiary of Rosatom, in May 2024 to build a small modular nuclear power plant in the Jizzakh Region. The design includes six 55 MW reactors with a combined capacity of 330 MW. In February 2025, Uzatom also formed an international consortium to expand its nuclear capacity, incorporating technologies from Russia, China, Europe, and the United States.
