The Republic of Belarus will receive, on the turn-key terms, a new high power capacity plant fitted with cutting-edge accident protection systems. Rosatom is going to complete the work by 2018.
The NPP (AES) -2006 with a VVER-1200 reactor is a reference project. This project is being used to build Baltic NPP, Novovoronezh NPP II and Leningrad NPP II. A similar plant is in operation in China; this is Phase One of Tianwan NPP, and it has been recognized by the IAEA experts as one of the world’s best in terms of safety.
Belarus NPP consisting of two power units with the total capacity of 2400MW will be built in the Ostrovets, Grodno Region, Republic of Belarus. The construction is financed by the Russian side.
Step by Step
The contract was signed last October, the building has started in April 2012. The General Contractor is “Atomstroyexport” (ASE), Russian engineering company. The client is “NPP Construction Directorate”, a state institution.
December 12, 2012 there was a ninth session of operation headquarters of NPP construction chaired by Vladimir Semashko, the First Deputy PM of Belarus. The members of the headquarters took a look at the site and discussed the work progress. The building and assembly jobs along with equipment supplies will be completed by the end of December as it had been scheduled.
In 2012 the works were conducted on 62 objects, 14 of them will be ready by the end of the year. Those are the buildings for General Contractor and the Client, two dining halls – for 500 and 160 seats, PAO buildings -1,2 gas pipeline with a boiler, heating supplies systems, storm water drain, sewer and industrial drain system, on and off-site water supply systems, cold store and site safety enclosure. In the pit of the main buildings of power unit №1 the bed drainage concreting is done.
Challenge
The next step is interior and exterior finishing of the buildings, land and access roads improvement. Its completion is scheduled for July 2013. In total in 2012 there will be full scale works going on at 29 objects of the industrial facility. Today the foundation mat preparation of power unit №1 is in progress, its completion is expected in February 2013.
Besides in the first half of 2013 there will start the excavation of the pit for power unit №2. The special attention at the session meeting was paid to the project documentation issue and licensing.
The construction of the NPP in Belarus is expected to ensure a large amount of orders for the local industry, since it is a Rosatom policy to seek for the maximum localization of the equipment manufacture in the country where the construction is proceeding.
After commissioning, Belarus NPP will create more than 1,000 new jobs for highly skilled personnel. And the development of the plant’s satellite city will add about 10,000 new jobs in consumer goods trade and catering, transport industry, education, medicine etc. This is a normal outcome when one job at the plant adds 10-15 jobs in related industries to economy.
