Opinions & Interviews

OSTROVETS, 4 August (BelTA) – The construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant proceeds strictly on schedule, BelTA learned from Mikhail Filimonov, Director General of the enterprise Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant, during a tour of the nuclear power plant’s information center in Ostrovets as part of a media trip arranged for Belarusian and Russian reporters to highlight Belarus-Russia interaction in energy industry on 4 August.

 Mikhail Filimonov remarked that all the operations are performed at the construction site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant in full compliance with the schedule. “By the end of the year the construction of the first power-generating unit’s reactor building will have to reach the 44 meters mark, that of the second power-generating unit will have to reach the 22 meters mark,” said the executive.

At present the construction of the external and internal protective shells of the first power-generating unit’s reactor stays at the 22 meters mark. As far as the second unit is concerned, the internal protective shell is at the 8 meters mark while the external one is at the 22 meters mark. Work is in progress to build auxiliary facilities, the control building and safety buildings of the first and second power-generating units. The construction of the facilities that the entire power plant will need continues, including in the training center and public-access manufacturing zones.

Since the beginning of the year construction workers have installed 19,100 tonnes of reinforcement bars and have poured 111,300 cubic meters of concrete as part of the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. Since the project was launched, 68,400 tonnes of reinforcement bars has been installed and 456,300 cubic meters of concrete has been poured.

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.