About $450m for Belarusian nuclear station construction in 2014

Plans have been made to spend about $450 million on implementing the investment project to build the Belarusian nuclear power plant, BelTA learned from Belarusian Energy Minister Vladimir Potupchik on 14 February.

“It is a large figure. This week we have held a session of the operations center in Ostrovets, with all the subcontractors taking part. We have divided the volumes. The process is moving into the right direction,” noted the official. He stressed that a lot of work was done last year as part of the Belarusian nuclear power plant project. “In November after the presidential decree was adopted and the license to build the first power-generating unit was issued, we got down to building the power plant after completing preparations,” said the Energy Minister. “All the apportioned money was spent. For the next year we should now get the license to continue building the first power-generating unit and the license for the second one”.

Belarus and Russia signed the general contract to build the Belarusian nuclear power plant in July 2012. The cost of building the installation is primarily covered by the state export loan granted by Russia. In line with the relevant intergovernmental agreement the loan can provide up to $10 billion for 25 years to cover 90% of the cost of every contract between the Russian company ZAO Atomstroyexport and the Belarusian state institution Directorate for Nuclear Power Plant Construction. Russia’s Vnesheconombank and Belarus’ BelVEB Bank are the agent banks in charge of servicing the loan. The Belarusian Finance Ministry has also requested Vnesheconombank to lend up to $500 million to finance the advance payments as part of the general contract.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant will have two power-generating units with the total capacity of up to 2,400MW (1,200MW each). It will be built using the Russian design AES-2006, which is compliant with international norms and IAEA recommendations. The merged company OAO NIAEP – Atomstroyexport (ASE) is the general designer and general contractor of the project.