Rosatom targets 2027 to start the large reactors at Uzbekistan's Jizzakh site
Serguey Asael Shinder1 min readRosatom plans to begin construction of the large-scale nuclear units at Uzbekistan's Jizzakh plant in 2027, chief executive Alexey Likhachev said during a site visit discussed with President Mirziyoyev on 23 October. Two small modular reactors are already under construction there — the first concrete for the foundation slab was poured in May, with the slab due to be finished by year-end — and two 1,000 MW units are planned nearby, with engineering surveys and design refinement under way. More than 1,000 people are on site, a number Likhachev expects to at least double.
The project has grown in stages. A May 2024 contract covered a 330 MWe plant of six RITM-200N small modular reactors, a design adapted from Russia's nuclear icebreakers, with the first 55 MWe unit due to go critical in late 2029. A 2025 supplemental agreement then added two gigawatt-scale VVER-1000 units, lifting planned capacity above 2,100 MWe. Rosatom also plans a "nuclear city" for 33,000 residents in its first phase.
What it means
The shape of this deal is the story: a country that started with icebreaker-derived small reactors has, within eighteen months, written in two conventional gigawatt units and more than sextupled the planned output. SMRs were the entry point, not the destination. For Rosatom, committing to outsource much of the general construction to Uzbek firms and to build a town for the workforce is how a reactor sale becomes a decades-long presence. The 2027 construction start is the milestone to watch, because first concrete on the large units is where a memorandum becomes a plant.