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MINSK, 9 December (BelTA) – Hungarian representatives do not rule out the opportunity of training their specialists at the Belarusian nuclear power plant (BelNPP) in the future, Paks Mayor Janos Suli told BelTA in the nuclear industry information center in Minsk on 9 December.

“It is possible that specialists of the Hungarian nuclear power plant will undergo training in Belarus as your plant would have been commissioned by that time and we will only be launching our project [on expanding the Hungarian nuclear power plant with two new reactors, which construction will start in 2018 – BelTA],” the Paks Mayor said. In his words, the Belarusian nuclear power plant is one of the benchmark-level plants for the future Paks II nuclear power plant.

Janos Suli also stressed that Hungarian nuclear experts had already received training at the Novovoronezh Nuclear Power Plant. “Paks and Novovoronezh are getting ready to sign an agreement on establishing twin-town relations,” he added.

A Hungarian delegation comprising representatives of municipal government agencies visited Belarus on 7-9 December. During the visit the guests were made familiar with the construction progress at the nuclear power plant construction site. They also visited the information center in Ostrovets and the education and training center of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. The Hungarian delegation visited the nuclear industry information center in Minsk on 9 December.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is a project to build an AES-2006 type nuclear power plant 18km away from Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. The Belarusian nuclear power plant will have two power-generating units with the total output capacity of up to 2,400MW (2x1,200MW). In line with the general contract for building the nuclear power plant the first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2018, with the second one to go online in 2020.

The Paks nuclear power plant is Hungary’s only nuclear power plant in use. The power plant is located 100km away from Budapest and 5km away from the town of Paks. The facility was built using a Soviet design (four VVER-440 type reactors). The nuclear power plant generates over 50% of the electricity generated in Hungary. Hungary plans to build two more VVER-1200 reactors.