Belarusian nuclear station specialists study Russian construction, installation oversight practices

Specialists of the Belarusian nuclear power plant studied the experience of overseeing construction and installation work as they visited the Novovoronezh nuclear power plant, representatives of the Russian nuclear power plant’s Information and Public Relations Office told BelTA.

A delegation of the Belarusian nuclear power plant toured the turbine house, the main control room, and the observation platform of the power-generating units. Russian specialists shared all the necessary technical information, including information about the construction of power-generating units for nuclear power plants, with Belarusian specialists.

The first power-generating unit of the Novovoronezh nuclear power plant was commissioned in 1964. This year the Russian enterprise celebrates its 50th anniversary. It is one of the oldest nuclear power engineering industry enterprises of the Russian Federation and is Russia’s first nuclear power plant to install water-moderated power reactors. The power plant is located on the bank of the Don River 42km to the south of the city of Voronezh.

The source also underlined that at present Belarusian-Russian cooperation in nuclear energy industry is complex and covers many avenues. Apart from constructing the Belarusian nuclear power plant the cooperation includes the creation of reliable safety regulation systems, the development and modernization of the necessary legal base, specialist training, experience sharing, contacts between scientific circles.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is expected to have two power-generating units with the total generating capacity of up to 2,400MW (1,200MW each). The Russian design AES-2006 has been chosen to build the power plant. The design is fully compliant with international standards and IAEA recommendations. The Volgodonsk-based branch Atommash of ZAO AEM Technologies intends to supply the reactor shell for the first power-generating unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant in autumn 2015.

A permanent division of the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry is supposed to start working at the construction site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant in Ostrovets by the end of 2014. For now they oversee the construction of the nuclear power plant via scheduled and unscheduled inspections.