Anatoly Bondar, Chief Engineer of the state enterprise Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant

Anatoly Bondar, Chief Engineer of the state enterprise Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant, said that so far roughly 38% of the construction and installation operations the project requires have been completed. About 80% of the work has been done by Belarusian contractors. The main equipment for the first power-generating unit and the general facilities the power plant will need has been bought already. Work at the second power-generating unit is also in progress.

"In the first power-generating unit we are ready to start installing the main equipment – the reactor pressure vessel and the steam generators. The pressure compensator, spherical shells of the main circulation pumps and hydraulic reservoirs of the emergency core cooling system have already been installed. We are now discussing the optimal sequence for installing the reactor together with the general design engineer of the nuclear power plant and the chief designer of the reactor unit," explained Anatoly Bondar. "The incoming inspection of the reactor pressure vessel found no faults. It has been confirmed by a commission that involves representatives of the oversight agency – the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry. Work in the turbine hall is also in full swing."

Before reaching the construction site near Ostrovets all the hardware has to pass thorough inspections, stressed Anatoly Bondar. For this purpose specialists of the Belarusian nuclear power plant travel to the manufacturing factories where they evaluate equipment production quality. "Frequent trips to the manufacturing facilities are needed for acceptance inspections and validation tests. We are talking about factories in the Russian Federation and non-CIS states where individual pieces of equipment for the first and second circuits are made," added Anatoly Bondar.

Anatoly Bondar pointed out that apart from finishing work in the power-generating units on schedule it is important to do the same for the general installations the power plant will need because they will have to provide auxiliary power, utility water and so on.

Now the nuclear power plant’s operating enterprise is looking forward to the report from the IAEA SEED mission, which worked in Belarus in January 2017, and a report on stress tests. "The evaluation produced by the stress tests is quite good. Work goes on. We expect to get the final report on the stress tests soon. After internal analysis we will forward it to the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry for the sake of preparing a national report on the safety of the Belarusian nuclear power plant," noted the Chief Engineer of the state enterprise Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant.