750-tonne crane handed over for Belarusian nuclear station construction

The Belarusian company ZAO BPS Leasing, a daughter enterprise of ZAO Sberbank Leasing, has handed over a crane to the representative office of OAO Nizhny Novgorod Engineering Company Atomenergoproekt in Belarus. The crane is a caterpillar one made by Liebherr with the lifting capacity of 750 tonnes. The crane will be used for building the Belarusian nuclear power plant, representatives of ZAO Sberbank Leasing told BelTA.

The crane comes with a 63-meter-long primary boom, a 42-meter-long controllable extension arm, derrick equipment, a 400-tonne suspended-type balancer weight and still boasts a compact size. The leasing contract’s term is 61 months. The contract is funded by the Volga-Vyatka branch of Sberbank of Russia. Worth over RUB307 million, the crane will get down to building the first power-engineering unit of the nuclear power plant in November.

ZAO Sberbank Leasing has been operating on the leasing market of Russia since 1993. In 2012 the company’s portfolio was close to RUB220 billion, with the volume of new business at about RUB82 billion. OAO Sberbank of Russia is the only shareholder of the company. Sberbank Leasing’s regional chain comprises 65 branches in major cities of Russia and daughter enterprises in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Belarus.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant will have two power-generating units with the total capacity of up to 2,400MW (1,200MW each). It will be built at the Ostrovets site in Grodno Oblast. 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 Russian public joint-stock company OAO NIAEP – ZAO Atomstroyexport is the general designer and the general contractor for building the power plant. The first power-engineering unit of the nuclear power plant is scheduled for launch in 2018.