Second unit of Belarusian nuclear power plant getting loaded with dummy fuel assemblies

MINSK, 9 March (BelTA) – Dummy fuel rod arrays are getting loaded into the reactor of the second unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, the press service of the Belarusian Energy Ministry told BelTA.

According to the source, the first dummy fuel rod array as placed into the reactor of the second unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant at 19:31 on 7 March. A total of 163 fuel rod arrays will have to be loaded.

The dummy fuel rod arrays represent exact replicas of genuine fuel assemblies but contain no nuclear fuel. The dummy assemblies are used in the course of startup and commissioning of the reactor unit in order to verify compliance with design parameters and safety requirements.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is being built near Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast using the Russian design AES-2006 featuring two VVER-1200 reactors with the total output capacity of 2,400MW.