Belarus saves 5.8bn cubic meters of natural gas thanks to nuclear plant so far

MINSK, 20 December (BelTA) - The Belarusian nuclear power plant (BelNPP) made it possible to replace 5.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas, Belarusian Energy Minister Viktor Karankevich said at a press conference in BelTA's press center.

This year, the second unit of the BelNPP was put into commercial operation. Currently, the plant operates two units and produces more than 55 million kWh of electricity daily. The plant generated a total of 21.8 billion kWh.

On 16 December, the second scheduled preventive maintenance was completed at the first unit, which was reconnected to the power grid. As part of the work performed, nuclear fuel was partially reloaded into the reactor - 42 out of 163 fuel assemblies with nuclear fuel were replaced. The equipment and technological systems were audited.

The Belarusian NPP with two VVER-1200 reactors with a total capacity of 2400 MW was built according to the Russian project "NPP-2006", which refers to the evolutionary projects of NPPs with water-water reactors (VVER) of the third generation. They have improved technical and economic performance. Their main feature is a unique combination of active and passive safety systems.