Belarus parliament’s upper chamber okays amendments to nuclear station loan agreement

The Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus approved the ratification of the protocol on amending the Belarusian-Russian intergovernmental agreement on granting a state export loan to Belarus for the sake of building the Belarusian nuclear power plant on 14 April, BelTA has learned.

The agreement was amended due to the re-organization of the agency in charge of supervising the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. In the past the nuclear power plant construction directorate was a state institution. Now it is a republican unitary enterprise.

Belarusian Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Kiyko answered questions regarding the legislation concerning the Belarusian nuclear power plant in the Council of the Republic on 14 April. The official explained that a supplemental agreement to the general contract had been prepared.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is a project to build an AES-2006 type nuclear power plant 18km away from Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. The power plant will have two power-generating units with the total output capacity of up to 2,400MW (2x1,200MW). The Russian merged company OAO NIAEP – ZAO ASE is the general designer and the general contractor of the project. In line with the general contract for building the nuclear power plant the first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2018, with the second one to go online in 2020.