Belarusian nuclear power plant project progress discussed

A large number of things concerning cooperation as part of the project to build the Belarusian nuclear power plant were discussed during consultations in Minsk on 29 July. The consultations were between Belarusian Deputy Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk and Nikolai Spassky, Deputy Director General for International Activities of the Russian state corporation Rosatom, representatives of the Belarusian Energy Ministry told BelTA.

While in Belarus the Rosatom executive also met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Belarus Alexander Surikov and Belarusian Healthcare Minister Vasily Zharko. Nikolai Spassky and Vasily Zharko discussed prospects of Belarus-Russia cooperation in nuclear medicine.

Belarus plans to build a nuclear power plant at the Ostrovets site in Grodno Oblast. The power plant will feature two power-generating units with the total capacity of up to 2,400MW. The Russian company OAO Nizhny Novgorod Engineering Company Atomenergoproject (NIAEP) - ZAO Atomstroyexport is the designer and the general contractor for the project. The first power-generating unit is scheduled to go online in 2018.

The Belarusian nuclear station’s design stems from the AES-2006 design developed by the Saint Petersburg-based institute Atomenergoproject. The AES-2006 design is now used to build the second Leningrad nuclear power plant. The design meets all the requirements of the national legislation and recommendations of the International Atomic Energy Agency.