Stringent quality assurance system at Belarusian NPP construction site

The quality of works at the construction site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant is under close control, Deputy Energy Minister of Belarus Mikhail Mikhadyuk told an online press conference "The future of the Belarusian energy system: energy and environmental aspects” on the website of BelTA.

“I want to say that we hold operational meetings under the chairmanship of First Vice Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko on a monthly basis,” he said. In addition, an inter-ministerial commission has been set up by order of the Prime Minister to monitor these issues as well. "If necessary, if there are any inconsistencies at the interdepartmental level, relevant decisions are taken to correct them,” said Mikhail Mikhadyuk.

The Deputy Minister stated that Belarus has built the stringent quality assurance and quality control system at the construction site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. “First, the general contract has a relevant unit. Certain staff of the Directorate for the NPP Construction supervise these issues: the acceptance of works, quality control, design documentation,” he said. The regulators also include Gospromnadzor and the relevant unit at the Emergencies Minsitry that performs routine quality checks over the course of the works. The system also includes governmental bodies such as Gosstroynadzor of Belarus and other supervisory authorities.

As it was reported the general contractor and the general customer use a special automated system of quality control which envisages a strict observance of the whole technological regulation and which makes it impossible to advance to a new stage of construction and equipment installation without the confirmation of quality parameters related to the previous stage. “We agreed with the general contractor OAO Nizhny Novgorod Engineering Company Atomenergoproject (NIAEP) that if a subcontractor faults in something or does not fulfill at least one of the terms of the contract, then he immediately leaves the project forever,” said Mikhail Mikhadyuk earlier.

The Belarusian NPP is being constructed according to a Russian design and is compliant with the national legislation and IAEA requirements. The Belarusian NPP will be based on the NPP-2006 design developed by the Saint Petersburg Atomenergoproyekt Institute. The same project is used in the construction of the Leningrad NPP-2 and the Baltic NPP. The Belarusian NPP will include two power units with the total capacity of up to 2,400MW. The first power unit is set to be commissioned in 2018.