Completion rate of Belarusian nuclear power plant's second unit at 98%

MINSK, 23 February (BelTA) – The completion rate of the second unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant is 98%, BelTA learned from Belarusian Energy Minister Viktor Karankevich on 23 February.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is the most important project for the power engineering industry. The first unit of the nuclear power plant underwent the first scheduled maintenance in 2022. The first reloading of fresh nuclear fuel into the reactor core was fulfilled as part of the scheduled maintenance. “The unit is operating at nominal capacity now. Since it was connected to the national power grid on 3 November 2020, 12.3 billion kWh of electricity has been generated. It allowed substituting about 3 billion m3 of natural gas,” Viktor Karankevich said.

In his words, the second unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant is 98% ready. Preparatory work for starting the chain reaction and switching the reactor to a minimal controlled power level (1% of the output) is nearing completion. Once it is done, a series of tests will be carried out. They are supposed to verify the reliability of nuclear-physics control systems and the nuclear safety of the reactor unit. Successful completion of this work will allow transitioning to the next stage: reactor power startup. It will include linking the reactor to the national power grid and generating the first few kilowatt-hours of electricity. It will be followed by the pilot commercial operation stage. The second unit is supposed to be commissioned for commercial operation in H2 2023, the energy minister noted.

The official also remarked that despite the complicated external situation the Belarusian power engineering industry continued systemic work in 2022 to implement the most important investment projects, renew the industry's basic production assets, and modernize power grid infrastructure. 2022 saw 1,700km of power lines and 200km of heat networks built and reconstructed. As many as 20 transformer substations with the voltage class of 35-110kV were modernized.

Work was done at four major power plants – the Bereza and Lukoml state district power plants, the Novopolotsk cogeneration plant, and Minsk cogeneration plant No.5 – to build peaking and backup energy sources. Highly-mobile power generating equipment with the total output capacity of 800MW was installed as part of the work. These facilities are supposed to be commissioned in 2023.