BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 28. Uzbekistan might face some issues caused by the rapid development of uranium industry in the country, Bryn Windsor, Senior Eurasia Analyst at the UK PRISM Political Risk Management agency told Trend.
The analyst noted that one of the possible challenges faced by Uzbekistan is export routes.
“The world’s largest uranium producer, Kazakhstan, has faced difficulty in the last year due to the geopolitical situation in the world. To increase export options, the country started to diversify export routes via the Middle Corridor, which also had its complications due to the lack of practice of transporting uranium through this route. As Uzbekistan develops its uranium industry, it will likely run into similar export route issues,” he noted.
As per Windsor, another challenge en route to flourishing uranium industry sector is water, as both uranium mining and running a nuclear power plant are extremely water-intensive industries.
“The severe water deficit faced by Uzbekistan today is expected to worsen in years to come. If Uzbekistan is serious about uranium, then it will need to address its water issue in parallel,” he stressed.
Earlier this year, speaking at the Innoprom Central Asia International Industrial Exhibition held in Tashkent, Deputy Minister of Mining and Geology of Uzbekistan Omonullo Nasritdinkhodzhayev said that Uzbekistan plans to double the volume of uranium production by 2030, bringing it from 3,600 in 2022 to 7,100 by the end of the designated period.
Uzbekistan has allocated 22 trillion Uzbek soums ($1.8 billion) from the state budget for the upgrade of the water management system from 2021 through 2023.
According to Uzbekistan’s Minister of Water Resources, Shavkat Khamrayev, it is planned to allocate another 1.7 trillion soums ($139.2 billion) and additional loans in the amount of $300 million from international financial organizations for the improvement of water management systems in 2024.