“The work on the site is going ahead of time”, – said the President of the RF at the meeting. – The first unit is planned to be launched in 2018, the second one in 2020”. The investments of Russia into the project are going to be $10 billion. The representatives of General Contractor of the construction, NIAEP (Rosatom engineering company) say that the preparation for the unit 1 building and excavation for the pit for unit 2 are already in progress.

According to Yuri Pustovsky, General Director of the Belarus NPP construction, the work on all the 62 objects of the production base and offsite mains and constructions, providing the work of the production base, will be finished in September 2013. Among the objects of the first importance he named offsite mains and fire, domestic water-supply buildings, the block of special metal structures and reinforcement with cold store, purification plants: offsite mains, household and production waste sewage systems and urban runoff sewage. Commissioning operations are planned to start in April.

Focus on Belarusian Atom
Nuclear power development along with NPP construction in Belarus will be in the center of attention at the V International Exhibition-Conference “Atomexpo-Belarus”, held April 2-4 in Minsk. The main companies of the Russian nuclear industry will be there, presenting the newest technologies in design, building, operation and safety provision of NPP. The topics of the conference are numerous: research work in nuclear power, personnel training for the new industry. Last year the conference was attended by about 100 participants – Russian enterprises specializing in atomic industry, the Department of Energy, Department of Industry, Ministry of Natural Resources & Environmental Protection of Belarus.

Some History
The Belarus NPP with two power units with total power of 2,4 thousand MW is being built upon the Russian project AES-2006, which is fully corresponding the international norms and IAEA recommendations. The same projects are being implied for Leningrad NPP-2 and Baltic NPP in Russia. The agreement upon the NPP construction on the Belarusian territory was signed between the two countries in March 2011. The NPP will be built on the Ostrovets site in Grodno region. The agreement suggests that the construction will be conducted by Russian side on a turnkey basis. Russia offers a government credit to Belarus for the construction.