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Sodik Safoev: Nuclear energy is the most promising and uncontested solution
The conference was organized by the Center for Energy Diplomacy and Geopolitics of the Institute for Advanced International Studies at UWED and the Atomic Energy Agency under the Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan.
The purpose of the conference was a deep, scientific understanding of the prospects and challenges associated with the development of nuclear energy in Uzbekistan. This topic, for obvious reasons and quite justifiably, is in the center of close public attention.
The conference was opened by the First Deputy Chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Rector of the University of World Economy and Diplomacy Sodik Safoyev, who said in his welcoming speech: “Modernization and progress of any country, and Uzbekistan is no exception, are directly related to energy. This is an axiom. Without sustainable energy supply, bringing productive forces to a new level and ensuring a new quality of life for the population are impossible. It is enough to note that the demand for energy resources in Uzbekistan will double by 2050. A natural question arises: where to get them from?
The problem is that modern human society is based mainly on the consumption of hydrocarbons - oil, natural gas and coal. But they, as is known, are the main source of carbon dioxide emissions. Its global annual volume has now reached a gigantic level - 50 billion tons.
29% of emissions come from industry, the same amount from electricity production, one fifth comes from agriculture, 15% from transport and 7% from housing.
Anthropogenic emissions, increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, are the main factor in climate change and global warming, the main source of environmental degradation.
Thus, the growing scale of hydrocarbon energy and the increasing dependence on its use predetermine a catastrophic threat to the future of humanity.
This problem has existential significance.
"Based on this, firstly, to ensure a stable and reliable energy supply to the country, it is necessary to diversify energy sources. In light of global trends, nuclear energy is the most promising, I would say, uncontested solution.
As an initial step in increasing safe nuclear generation, it would be possible to start with the deployment of modular small reactors, for example, in remote regions. This will allow us to modernize the energy infrastructure and diversify the energy complex with lower investment costs, providing energy to remote regions.
Secondly, understanding projects in this sensitive area, like nowhere else, requires the only correct approach: collecting as much data as possible, studying international experience, deep systemic impartial scientific analysis, and not rushing to make final conclusions. Decisions in this area can and should be made primarily by specialists, professionals.
Thirdly, we must proceed from the fact that energy supply, in any form, has its price. And this price is measured not only and not even so much by financial indicators. More significant is its impact on the environment, on the life and health of the current and future generations of people.
One of the reasons, let's say, for the failure of the "green revolution", which was expected to solve the problem of hunger in the world, in my opinion, was its focus exclusively on biological and agrotechnical issues and insufficient consideration of environmental and socio-economic consequences.
Therefore, any project should be studied in the context - universal, regional, country, local. It should also be verified from the standpoint of sustainable development and the human dimension, i.e. from the point of view of satisfying the complex of material and non-material needs of people of the current and future generations.
In other words, it is important to take into account not only the technical and economic parameters of the project, but above all its socio-economic consequences.
Fourthly, given the interconnectedness of natural, climatic and other factors of the region, energy projects, primarily in the field of nuclear energy, must be considered in the context of all of Central Asia. "We need to integrate them taking into account a group of balances: productive forces, demographic, water, achieving optimization and avoiding duplication. A region-wide policy and coordinated strategy are needed in this vitally important sphere. As we see, a field of activity is opening up here for diplomacy, called upon to develop appropriate foreign policy initiatives," Sodik Safoyev said in conclusion of his greeting.
