Uzbekistan Signs Nuclear Safety Pact With U.S. Even As Russia's Rosatom Stays on the Hook to Build the Plant

A safety deal, not a construction deal

Uzbekistan's Committee for Industrial, Radiation and Nuclear Safety and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission signed a memorandum of understanding on September 18, on the sidelines of the 70th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, according to Trend News Agency. The agreement was signed by A. Rafigov, chairman of the Uzbek committee, and Ho Nieh, chairman of the U.S. NRC.

The document covers licensing, inspections, emergency preparedness and specialist training, according to Zamin.uz. It also opens the door to U.S. technical assistance for improving Uzbekistan's regulatory framework, according to OilPrice.com, which credited the reporting to Eurasianet.

The Uzbek committee said in a statement that the memorandum "will expand the exchange of information and experience between the regulatory authorities of the two countries and contribute to ensuring safety in the peaceful use of nuclear energy." The memorandum is a regulatory and safety agreement. It does not replace Russia's role as the builder of Uzbekistan's first nuclear cluster.

Rosatom still has the contract, but the trust is fading

Russia's state nuclear company Rosatom broke ground on Uzbekistan's first nuclear plant on June 4, 2026, in a ceremony attended by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Eurasia Review. Putin told Mirziyoyev at the time, "I am confident that you have chosen the best option for Uzbekistan out of all those offered."

Three months later, the tone shifted. A September 2 update from Mirziyoyev's press service on the project's progress never mentioned Rosatom by name, according to Eurasia Review. Instead, it proposed creating a joint venture with "leading international engineering companies" to oversee construction, improve project management and conduct independent technical reviews. The statement gave no details on who would be part of that consortium.

Uzbek officials also met with their Russian counterparts during the same IAEA conference in Vienna. According to OilPrice.com and ua.news, that meeting produced no memorandums or agreements, in contrast to the signed deal with the Americans.

Money and jobs are part of the friction

The planned project calls for two 1-gigawatt VVER-1000 reactors and two 55-megawatt RITM-200N small modular reactors, along with a town built to house up to 33,000 workers, according to Eurasia Review. The price tag is estimated at $9.5 billion, and financing remains unresolved.

Mirziyoyev has also pushed back on Rosatom's local-content numbers, calling a proposed 21% local content share, worth about $1.9 billion, too low. He wants at least 30% domestic production, 65% of construction work done by Uzbek firms, and 7,000 local jobs, plus a nearby materials plant, according to Eurasia Review. Construction had already slipped past an originally planned March 2026 start.

In August, Mirziyoyev floated the idea of a second nuclear plant with no site, builder, or price attached, a sign Tashkent is keeping its options open even as the first project moves forward under Russian ownership.

Washington's growing footprint

Mirziyoyev met with U.S. Senator Steve Daines twice in four days, in Bishkek and then in Tashkent, according to Eurasia Review, against a backdrop of Trump-era U.S. interest in small modular reactor deals across Central Asia. Eurasia Review, citing Eurasianet, reported that Putin has been more overt in signaling displeasure with the recent course of bilateral relations, and that Mirziyoyev's omission of Rosatom from his September update suggests the discontent runs both ways.

Rosatom has not lost the contract, and no source in this reporting shows Uzbekistan canceling or downgrading Russia's builder role. Rosatom remains a dominant global player, and Uzbekistan's own regulator continued bilateral talks with Russian counterparts on inspection methods and safety enforcement even after the U.S. memorandum was signed.

At the same time, Rosatom's plate is full elsewhere. Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev said during a trade forum in Vladivostok that his company is negotiating with Iran to build a series of small nuclear power plants, according to Breitbart, citing Russian news agency Tass. Iran's Atomic Energy Organization head, Mohammad Eslami, said separately that Tehran is aiming for 20 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2040 across eight new plants, according to Iran's state-run IRNA. Nothing in the sourcing here ties the Iran talks to Uzbekistan's decision-making, but it shows Rosatom juggling multiple large state contracts at once while facing questions in Tashkent about delays and financial capacity.

The open question is what Uzbekistan's promised "international consortium" of engineering firms actually looks like, and whether it dilutes Rosatom's control over construction or simply adds outside auditors on top of it. Mirziyoyev's government has not named the consortium's members, and no timeline has been announced for when that structure will be finalized.