Tighter oversight over equipment production for Belarusian nuclear power plant

In 2015 the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry will step up control over the production and acceptance of the equipment made for the Belarusian nuclear power plant, BelTA learned from Oleg Sobolev, Head of the Communications and Public Information Office of the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry.

In comparison with 2014 the involvement of the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department in control over the production of the equipment will no longer be sporadic. The Department will practice large-scale permanent control, said the official. In 2015 a lot of equipment will be produced for the Belarusian nuclear power plant. Since the first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2018, with the second one to go online in 2020, the active manufacturing operations will last for several years, he added. In 2014 specialists of the Department started practicing oversight at producer factories in Russia’s Saint Petersburg and Volgodonsk.

Speaking about the main areas of the Department’s work for 2015, Oleg Sobolev pointed out that the Department will closely monitor the fulfillment of the requirements of the license granted to the enterprise Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant for the time needed to build the two power-generating units. The next license the enterprise Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant will request from the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry will be the license to operate the first power-generating unit, specified the specialist.

Oleg Sobolev stressed that the Department’s inspectors have been monitoring the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant on site since late 2014.

Speaking about results of the Department’s work in 2014, the official reminded that they issued three licenses: for building the foundations of facilities of the second power-generating unit (in February), for building the first power-generating unit (in April), and for building the second power-generating unit (in December). A total of 13 audits of the enterprise Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant were carried out in 2014 to check nuclear and radiation safety state, including two complex audits involving Russian specialists.

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.