Key operations for Belarusian nuclear station construction in 2015 outlined

A regular session of the operations center in charge of building the Belarusian nuclear power plant has taken place. During the session experts discussed routine matters concerning the construction of the nuclear power plant, BelTA learned from representatives of the Information and Public Relations Department of the state enterprise Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant.

Igor Shchegolev, Vice President of the merged company AO NIAEP – ZAO Atomstroyexport, who is responsible for the project to build the Belarusian nuclear power plant, mentioned the key operations that will be carried out at the construction site in 2015. In his words, the number includes the placing and concreting of the protective shell of the reactor building of the first power-generating unit and the installation of internal walls and ceilings of the reactor building of the first power-generating unit.

According to Yuri Pustovoi, director of the Belarusian representative office of AO NIAEP, they intend to spend 71% more money on the project in 2015 in comparison with 2014. The number of construction workers will be doubled in comparison with 2014 to exceed 5,500 people.

The session of the operations center took place at the construction site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. It was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko. Representatives of the Belarusian Energy Ministry also took part in the session as well as representatives of the state enterprise Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant (the customer of the construction project), the general designer and the general contractor — the merged company AO NIAEP – ZAO Atomstroyexport, heads of Belarusian subcontracting companies, and the Grodno Oblast administration.

A protocol on amending the Belarusian-Russian intergovernmental agreement on building the nuclear power plant in Belarus of 15 March 2011 was ratified in Minsk in late February. The document was signed in Moscow on 23 December 2014. Some mass media interpreted the amendments as possible deviations from the timeframe that determines the commissioning of the Belarusian nuclear power plant.

In response to the mass media speculations representatives of the Belarusian Energy Ministry said that the timeframe for commissioning the Belarusian nuclear power plant will not be changed. Meanwhile, the amendments will allow timely sharing the information required to develop the design documents and build the physical safeguards using a designated Russian state export loan with quality and timeliness in mind. Apart from that, a number of technical matters were addressed.

After the session of the Supreme State Council of the Union State of Belarus and Russia in Moscow on 3 March the presidents of Belarus and Russia told mass media that the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant proceeded on schedule and the first power-generating unit is scheduled to go online in 2018.

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).