Core catcher of Belarusian nuclear power plant’s second unit to be installed in March

The installation of the core catcher for the second power-generating unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant will begin in March, BelTA learned from Andrei Barkun, Deputy Director General of the enterprise Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant, on 26 November during a media tour organized by the Belarusian Energy Ministry.

Andrei Barkun said: “We plan to start installing the core catcher of the second power-generating unit in March 2015. A similar device for the first unit has already been installed into the reactor’s shaft,” said the Deputy Director General. He specified that the first core catcher will be fully deployed within the next few months. The core catcher is a specialized system designed to protect nuclear power plants. The device will prevent dangerous radioactive elements from leaking out of the shell even in the direst of emergencies.

Andrei Barkun remarked that the construction of the nuclear power plant in Belarus follows the schedule. In particular, the construction of the aboveground part of the reactor building of the first power-generating unit is now past the plus 9.4 meter mark. By the end of the year they plan to reach plus 22 meters, install 33,000 tonnes of reinforcement bars and pour 183,000 m3 of concrete.

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. In line with the general contract for building the nuclear power plant the first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2018, with the second one to go online in 2020.