News & Events in Belarus

Belarus, Russia sign contractual agreement to build NPP in Belarus

MINSK, 11 October (BelTA) - A contractual agreement to build Belarus’ first nuclear power plant has been signed, BelTA learnt from the press service of Atomstroyexport.

On 11 October Atomstroyexport (Russia), the Rosatom State Corporation, and the NPP Construction Directorate (Belarus) signed a contractual agreement for the construction of Units No. 1 and No. 2 of the nuclear power plant on the territory of Belarus. The document was signed by the chief of the NPP Construction Directorate Mikhail Filimonov and President of Atomstroyexport Alexander Glukhov.

The contractual agreement defines the basic provisions of the contract for the turnkey construction of two units of the nuclear power plant with a total capacity of up to 2400 MW with a reactor installation B-491. The document provides that the contractor undertakes the full responsibility for the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant.

Belarus’ first nuclear power plant will be built to the NPP-2006 project of St. Petersburg Atomenergoprojekt (SPbAEP). Since 2004, SPbAEP has been directly involved in all stages of works, starting from the selection of the site, technology and the type of the plant, environmental reviews to the development of the contract.

The NPP will be built in Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. The Belarusian NPP project complies with the requirements of the existing legislative and regulatory instruments in atomic energy of the Russian Federation, taking into account the recommendations of IAEA, EUR requirements. The project is distinguished by the enhanced level of nuclear, radiation, technical and ecological safety, as well as techno-economic specifications.

BelTA has informed earlier that the first power generating unit will be constructed in 2017, and the second one will be commissioned in 2018. The cost of the project is estimated at about $9.4 billion. Russia is expected to provide loans for the NPP construction. The coordination of the loan agreement is almost complete.

On 28 November 2008 the Belarusian Government sent a letter to the Government of the Russian Federation notifying that the preference was given to Russian NPP construction design project. On 28 May 2009 Minsk hosted a ceremony of signing an agreement between the Government of Russia and the Government of Belarus on cooperation in the peaceful use of atomic energy. The Union State Council of Ministers met in Minsk on 15 March 2011 to sign an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the NPP construction in Belarus.

Atomstroyexport is a leading engineering company of the Rosatom State Corporation in construction of nuclear power facilities abroad. The company is currently implementing construction contracts, including turnkey ones, for five nuclear power plants overseas.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant will be based on the NPP-2006 project, Russia’s modern and safe project of the 3 + generation featuring unique combination of active and passive safety systems. The project is developed by the Saint Petersburg Atomenergoproyekt Institute. At present, the project is used to construct the Leningrad NPP 2 and the Baltic NPP. The Belarusian design will use four duplicate safety system channels, a fusion localization device, a double shell for the reactor’s building, a system to remove hydrogen, systems for passive heat dissipation. The installation will be able to survive an earthquake of seven points on MSK-64 scale. It will use a water-cooled power reactor, which safety has been confirmed by many years of accident-free exploitation.

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