Thousands employed at Belarusian nuclear station construction site

As many as 1,500 people are employed at the construction site of the future Belarusian nuclear power plant now. The information was released by Alexander Poznyakov, Chief Engineer of the Capital Construction Office of the Nuclear Power Plant Construction Directorate, in Ostrovets on 17 August, BelTA has learned.

The figure is expected to double next year.

According to the Nuclear Power Plant Construction Directorate, the development of the documentation the Belarusian nuclear power plant needs has been finished. The erection of the station in accordance with civil engineering technologies will begin with pouring concrete into foundation slabs of the primary buildings and installations of the nuclear power plant. The work is supposed to begin once a special license is issued for operations regarding the use of nuclear energy and sources of ionizing radiation, the part that involves work and services to build the first and second power-generating units of the Belarusian nuclear power plant.

The main phase of the work to build the nuclear power plant at the Ostrovets site is expected to begin in autumn. In 2013 construction teams are supposed to start building facilities that make the nuclear power plant’s operation possible, including the construction of a fire engine depot, a training center with a demonstration wing and other installations.

At the same time work is in progress to get manufacturers started on making the equipment that takes a long time to produce. Those are the shell of the reactor, steam generators, pumps, a turbine, machinery room equipment, a full-scale simulator and an analysis simulator for the training center, power equipment, automated systems to control the process flow.

Representatives of the Nuclear Power Plant Construction Directorate remarked that the construction of homes for builders and the personnel that will man the station continues in Ostrovets. As many as six residential buildings will be commissioned in 2013. The construction of a youth center, a secondary school and a children daycare center has begun.