Great opportunities for Belarusian construction companies in nuclear power plant project

Belarusian construction workers, installation and maintenance fitters are capable of doing 85% of all the operations involved in building the Belarusian nuclear power plant. The statement was made by First Vice Premier of Belarus Vladimir Semashko at the expanded participation session of the Belarusian Energy Ministry board on 14 February, BelTA has learned.

“Certainly, Belarusian construction workers and installation fitters will not be able to install and tune the nuclear equipment because we haven’t done such things up till now, but we should be able to do the work we can do,” noted the official.

At present Belarusians are responsible for 74% of the operations while Russians take care of 26% of the operations. The Belarusian side has all the chances of raising the percentage in its favor, believes the First Vice Premier. “We had a session of the operations center on a recent day. Using results of what has been done already, we proved before Russian colleagues that we can undertake more operations. The existing percentage might change, with 15% left to the Russians and 85% left to the Belarusians”.

First Vice Premier of Belarus Vladimir Semashko underlined that no complaints had been heard regarding the quality and the timeframe of the operations completed by Belarusian companies. The construction progress is ahead of schedule. The work to build the nuclear island for the first power-generating unit is in progress already. In April similar operations will begin for the second power-generating unit. The First Vice Premier invited Belarusian construction companies, which specialize in power-engineering installations, to take a more active part in tenders for contract works. He said: “All the works are distributed via tenders. Please, go ahead and take part in them, offer more advantageous terms and do it. You must fight for these orders”.

According to Vladimir Semashko, the construction of the nuclear power plant offers great opportunities as far as the participation of Belarusian companies is concerned. “All the necessary conditions are in place, the human resources, equipment and financial resources are available. We have $10 billion granted by the Russian loan on extremely profitable terms and with an attractive interest rate and an attractive repayment date. Excellent contracts that still have to be implemented are available,” said Vladimir Semashko.

“Today I heard out reports from construction companies specializing in power engineering construction projects with great pleasure. I see that their participation in the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant accounted for the bulk of their work in 2013. The nuclear power plant accounted for 48% of Belenergostroy’s annual work. But these percentages have to get even higher. Fight for these contracts,” concluded Vladimir Semashko.