About $250m saved by Belarusian nuclear power plant's first unit so far

OSTROVETS DISTRICT, 22 December (BelTA) – The first unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant has allowed the country to save about $250 million by substituting imported natural gas, BelTA learned from Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko on 22 December.

Since the first unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant was connected to the power grid and till the end of 2021, the unit generated 6 billion kWh of electricity. Once both units of the Belarusian nuclear power plant are operational, the country will be able to substitute about 4.5 billion m3 of natural gas per annum.

Roman Golovchenko noted: “It opens up new opportunities for increasing electricity consumption, which enjoys a strong demand right now. Investors already contact us. They are interested in buying large amounts of electricity for their own needs. I am talking about energy-intensive manufacturing and other popular industries such as cryptocurrency mining.”

The Belarusian nuclear power plant with two VVER-1200 reactors with the total output capacity of 2,400MW is located near Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. A Russian Generation III+ design was chosen for building Belarus' first nuclear power plant. The design is fully compliant with international norms and recommendations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).