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An international financial institution has joined the funding structure for Uzbekistan’s first nuclear power plant, Rosatom director-general Alexei Likhachev disclosed to journalists on 23 October, adding detail to a project whose financing had previously been described only in broad terms.
Likhachev made the statement on the same day he met President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in Tashkent. The two sides discussed construction progress at the integrated NPP site in Jizzakh region, the development of supporting infrastructure, and workforce training. Rosatom said the project now involves all four reactor units under simultaneous construction — a combination it describes as unique worldwide.
A Configuration Found Nowhere Else
The plant will pair two large-capacity VVER-1000 reactors with two small modular RITM-200N reactors. Likhachev called the arrangement unprecedented.
“Nowhere else on the planet are two gigawatt-class units and two small-capacity reactors being built at the same time,”
he said, arguing the mix gives the station significantly greater economic value and operational flexibility than conventional designs.
On near-term milestones, Rosatom said the foundation slab of the reactor building for the first power unit is due to be completed before the end of 2026, a pour requiring roughly 10,000 cubic metres of concrete.
A City Before the Station
Likhachev drew attention to the social dimension of the project, noting that construction of the accompanying nuclear city — the so-called atomgrad — is running ahead of the station’s own schedule. The settlement is intended first for construction workers and later for the plant’s permanent operating staff. He described it not merely as staff housing but as “a development centre” with planned high-standard medical and educational facilities. A technology park is also being built adjacent to the site, part of Rosatom’s stated intention to bring not only nuclear but related industrial technologies to Uzbekistan.
The identity of the international financial institution was not disclosed by Likhachev. In September 2025, the head of Uzbekistan’s nuclear agency Uzatom, Azim Akhmедkhajayev, had said that several multilateral lenders were examining participation in the project’s financing, naming the BRICS New Development Bank — which Uzbekistan joined in May of that year — and unspecified Middle Eastern institutions, alongside the possibility of Russian financing.