Pustovoi: 95% of machines at Belarus’ NPP construction site was made in Belarus

Some 95% of machines used at the Belarusian nuclear power plant construction site was made in Belarus, Head of OAO NIAEP Office in Belarus - director for building the Belarusian nuclear power plant Yuri Pustovoi said during an online conference on the BelTA website on 23 October.

“The equipment that we brought here includes several units of equipment to cut fittings, one tower crane and a unique, very expensive 750-tonne crane that will mount the heaviest equipment,” he said.

Speaking about the control over the construction of the nuclear power plant, Yuri Pustovoi emphasized that the process has many stages. “First of all, we inform the Belarusian companies about our requirements and provide them with the list of rules and specification documents. It means that the first stage of control is exercised by the contracting companies. At the second stage, OAO NIAEP Office in Belarus exercises random control. If any questions emerge, we will check everything multiple times. The third stage involves the Russian company VPO Zarubezhatomenergostroy that controls the important systems and equipment that are supplied and mounted at nuclear power plants. The control is very serious. The company drafts a plan and a schedule of checks as well as a quality plan and makes sure everything is checked thoroughly,” he said.

The Russian design AES-2006 featuring a water-cooled power reactor VVER-1200 has been chosen to build the Belarusian nuclear power plant that will be located at the Ostrovets site in Grodno Oblast. The project’s completion time is stipulated by the general contract, which provides for commissioning the first power-generating unit of the nuclear power plant in November 2018 while the second one is scheduled to go online in July 2020. In line with the project documentation approved by the Belarus government the Belarusian nuclear power plant will have two power-generating units with the installed nominal capacity of 1,194MW each. The installed capacity of the entire power plant will be 2,388MW. The station is designed to operate for 50 years. The average annual electricity output in basic operation mode is projected at 17,095.1 million kWh.