The President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed bill on the country's accession to the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage into law Friday. The bill was passed by the Legislative Chamber on May 27 and approved by the Senate on June 26.
According to the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the countries implementing nuclear power programs must accede to international legal instruments on nuclear safety.
One such document is the Vienna Convention, adopted on May 21, 1963, under the auspices of the IAEA and is deemed the primary international legal instrument in this area. Currently, 47 shall are parties to the Convention, including Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, and other countries.
According to the Convention, the operator shall bear absolute liability for nuclear damage resulting from incidents at facilities under its control. The operator shall be waived from liability if damage results from armed conflict, civil war, insurrection, or extraordinary natural disasters, as well as if it is caused to the nuclear installation itself or property belonging to the operator.
The Convention sets a minimum limit on the civil liability of a nuclear installation operator at $5 million, which is approximately $480 million in current dollars. Furthermore, a state party to the Convention is required to establish the limit of civil liability for a nuclear installation operator in its legislation. This must be done by adopting a legal act defining the amount of financial liability and the procedure for enforcing it.
After ratifying the Vienna Convention, Uzbekistan vows to accede to other international treaties in the field of nuclear safety, in particular: the Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency (Vienna, 26 September 1986), the Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident (Vienna, 26 September 1986), and the Convention on Nuclear Safety (Vienna, 17 June 1994).
As reported previously, Uzbekistan vowed to ratify 25 regulatory documents based on IAEA standards in 2025-2026 to build the nuclear power plant.
Uzbekistan's first nuclear power plant is being built in the Farish district of the Jizzakh province under an intergovernmental treaty with the Russian state corporation Rosatom. According to the latest amendments, the plan is to build an integrated nuclear power plant (combining large and small reactors) with two large 1000 MW reactors and two small 55 MW reactors.
