Belarusian nuclear station project past 5% progress mark

As much as 5% of the total work needed to build the Belarusian nuclear power plant has been done, BelTA learned from Andrei Barkun, Deputy Director General for Capital Construction of the enterprise Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant, during a mass media tour arranged for Belarusian and foreign reporters as part of the sixth international nuclear industry expo and conference AtomExpo Belarus 2014 on 3 April.

Andrei Barkun confirmed that the time gap between the start of the construction of the first and second power-generating units of the nuclear power plant was only six months instead of 1.5 years. The headway was secured thanks to the earlier start of excavation operations at the construction site of the second power-generating unit. Thanks to this they were able to more effectively use the equipment that was no longer needed after excavation operations were finished at the construction site of the first power-generating unit. According to the Deputy Director General for Capital Construction of the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant, the fulfillment of the financial plan of the construction project is getting close to 5%. He explained that equipment of the nuclear power plant accounts for a large part of the prime cost of the nuclear power plant. “So far tenders have been held for 70% of the equipment the first and second power-generating units need, contractors have been chosen, contracts have been signed. Parts are now manufactured and some of them require from one to two years to make. The first payments have been transferred to the manufacturers,” said Andrei Barkun.

A core catcher was delivered to the first power-generating unit construction site in late autumn. The installation will begin in May. The executive explained that the core catcher was delivered ahead of the schedule because the supplier had concerns about its inability to make it on time due to late river navigation forecasts for 2014. The bottom part of the core catcher is at the preinstallation site of the first power-generating unit’s construction site.

According to the latest data as many as 2,600 people are employed at the Belarusian nuclear power plant construction site, including about 2,100 Belarusian workers. The other 500 workers are employees of the Russian company Rosspetsenergomontazh. The company employs a lot of Belarusians and specializes in erecting energy industry installations. Two former specialists of the Ignalina nuclear power plant have been hired to work for the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant. One of them is the head of a turbine division. By the end of the year the number of workers involved in the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant is expected to reach 3,400 people. “The volume and the pace of the work will be higher,” said Andrei Barkun. “Work is now in progress at 40 facilities of the nuclear power plant. Work on 15 of them began in Q1 2014. A total of 120 facilities of the Belarusian nuclear power plant will have to be built”.