Uzbekistan will start work in September on a nuclear station that will house six small modular reactors (SMRs), according local media reports and Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom.

Uzatom, the country’s nuclear energy agency, signed a protocol with Rosatom at the site of the planned facility, in the Jizzakh region, near the border with Tajikistan in the east of the country

Rosatom said that during a visit to the site, a protocol was signed on “the procedure for the entry into force of the contract for the construction of the NPP”. That contract was signed on 27 May, Rosatom confirmed.

If the agreement is implemented, the SMR plant would become the first in Central Asia.