Business news

MINSK, 26 February (BelTA) – As much as $494.5 million was spent on building the Belarusian nuclear power plant in 2014 as part of contracts with the Russian side. The figure is 5% above the projections, BelTA learned from Zhanna Zenkevich, Press Secretary of the Belarusian Energy Ministry, on 26 February.

The work on building the Belarusian nuclear power plant in 2014 followed the schedule, noted the Press Secretary. Construction workers worked to build 68 installations, including buildings of the reactor, the turbine, and the cooling tower for the first and second power-generating units of the nuclear power plant. As much as 40,000 tonnes of reinforcement bars were installed, with 290,000m3 of concrete poured.

Since the project began, 32.9% of the required reinforcement bars have been installed, 31.7% of monolithic concrete has been poured, and contracts to deliver 61% of the equipment the Belarusian nuclear power plant will need have been signed.

According to the Energy Ministry, in 2014 as many as 3,500 construction workers were employed for the project. The share of Belarusian construction companies in building the nuclear power plant exceeded 80%.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is a project to build an AES-2006 type nuclear power plant 18km away from Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. The power plant will have two power-generating units with the total output capacity of up to 2,400MW (2x1,200MW). The Russian merged company OAO NIAEP – ZAO ASE is the general designer and the general contractor of the project. 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.