Readiness of second unit of Belarusian nuclear power plant at 95%

MINSK, 20 December (BelTA) – The readiness of the second unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant stands at 95%. Belarusian Energy Minister Viktor Karankevich made the relevant statement in BelTA's press center on 20 December.

Viktor Karankevich said that every day the Belarusian nuclear power plant generates about 28 million kWh of electricity or 22% of the total amount of electricity generated in Belarus. Since the first unit was connected to the power grid, the nuclear power plant has generated 5.7 billion kWh of electricity, which allowed substituting 1.6 billion m3 of natural gas. It is 2.5 times as much as the amount of electricity the country's petrochemical complex consumes per year. The readiness of the second unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant is at 95%. Work is in progress to enable the necessary conditions that will allow the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry (Gosatomnadzor) to authorize the loading of nuclear fuel into the reactor core. The work is supposed to be finished within the next few days. The second unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant is supposed to be commissioned in 2022.

The official stressed that a lot of work had been done to integrate the Belarusian nuclear power plant into the country's power grid. The work included the construction of new high-voltage power lines and backbone substations and the modernization of existing ones. It allowed transmitting the electricity the nuclear power plant generates to all parts of the country. Apart from that, the construction of electric boilers with the total installed capacity exceeding 916MW has been finished at 20 energy installations. These facilities are actively used for heating major population centers as of 2021.

Construction of peaking and backup power plants is nearing completion. These sources of energy will be commissioned at four major power plants of the industrial group Belenergo in 2022. Their total capacity will be 800MW. The peaking and backup power plants will secure the reliable operation of the power grid taking into account various operating modes of the nuclear power plant.