Belarusian nuclear station launch timeline unchanged

The time when the Belarusian nuclear power plant is supposed to be commissioned will not be changed, BelTA learned from Belarusian Energy Minister Vladimir Potupchik during a press conference on 26 February when the official was asked about amendments to the Belarusian-Russian intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in building the nuclear power plant in Belarus.

Some mass media incorrectly interpreted these amendments. According to the source, the timeline for commissioning power-generating units of the nuclear power plant is specified by the relevant presidential decree. The Belarusian-Russian intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in building the nuclear power plant in Belarus had to be amended to bring it into compliance with the decisions that had been made earlier. The Belarusian Energy Minister added that a number of technical issues had to be addressed.

During the session on 25 February the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus ratified the protocol on amending the Belarusian-Russian intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in building the nuclear power plant in Belarus of 15 March 2011. The document was signed in Moscow on 23 December 2014.

As the sides signed the general contract to build the Belarusian nuclear power plant on 18 July 2012, they set out to commission the first power-generating unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant in 2018, with the second one scheduled for launch in 2020. The two dates are specified by the Belarus president’s decree No. 499 of 2 November 2013. The decree regulates the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant.

The amendments to the agreement will allow the sides to share information required for the development of design documents and the creation of physical safeguards without any risks to state security. The sides will be able to perform the work to build the physical safeguards using a designated Russian state export loan with quality and timeliness in mind.

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.