Belarusian PM hails decision to build BelNPP as a wise one

OSTROVETS DISTRICT, 19 May (BelTA) - Time has shown that the decision to build the Belarusian nuclear power plant was a wise one, Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko told the media on 19 May, BelTA has learned.

"We were heavily criticized at a time when we were preparing to make a decision on the construction of a nuclear power plant. Especially by the West. Now we see how wise the decision was. Our critics are now frantically digging out nuclear power plant projects from dusty shelves," the prime minister said.

He stressed that this is the most important project of the decade for Belarus. "We are actually on the home stretch. Today, we were discussing the schedule of the remaining measures to put the second unit into commercial operation," Roman Golovchenko noted.

Measures were taken in advance in the country to stimulate electricity consumption. "These are incentive tariffs for households, compensation for expenses to switch or commission new houses to electricity as the main source of heat," the head of government said.

BelNPP is also important from the point of view of energy mix diversification. "We are not abandoning natural gas, but the full commissioning of the second unit and bringing the two units to the designed capacity will allow us to save on gas," Roman Golovchenko said.

With the commissioning of the second unit, BelNPP will annually produce about 18.5 billion kWh of electricity. This will satisfy about 40% of the country's needs and will replace about 4.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year.

"With the commissioning of the plant, the work will not stop. Rosatom is working to modernize and improve the parameters of the current type of reactors. There are other developments that are of interest to Belarus. I think we have a long and eventful journey ahead of us," the prime minister added.

Today, the capacity of the second unit of the BelNPP has been increased to 50% in a ceremony with the participation of Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko Director General of the Rosatom state corporation Alexey Likhachev on 19 May.