Belarus and Russia have reached an agreement on delivering a reactor pressure vessel for the second power-generating unit of the Ostrovets nuclear power plant, BelTA learned from Belarusian Deputy Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk on 20 April.
The second unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant will get the reactor pressure vessel initially intended for the Baltic nuclear power plant, which is located in Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast. The schedule for commissioning the Belarusian nuclear power plant’s second unit will be not be affected. The reactor is expected to go online in 2020.
The official said: “We have already signed an amendment to the contract, which obliges the general contractor to fit the second power-generating unit [of the Belarusian nuclear power plant] with the reactor pressure vessel made for the Baltic nuclear power plant. It is an identical product because the Baltic nuclear power plant was designed just like the Belarusian nuclear power plant.”
The replacement will be provided at no extra cost, added the deputy energy minister.
The Belarusian nuclear power plant is a project to build a new-generation nuclear power plant with two VVER-1200 type reactors (1,200MW each) 18km away from Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. The first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2019, with the second one to go online in 2020.