NIIIS will design and produce process control systems for the first nuclear power plant in Belarus, said Sergei Kharchenko, Head of NIIIS R&D Department.

The process control system integrates multi-level software and hardware components into a single NPP management tool. When new safety standards were introduced, safety systems at Novovoronezh-2 and Leningrad-2 nuclear stations (based on the same AES-2006 design as the Belarusian NPP) were equipped with initiating devices produced by Areva. The French equipment will be replaced with Russian components now developed by a consortium of Russian companies.

“A new, entirely Russian process control system is being designed for the Belarusian NPP,” Harchenko said. According to him, involvement of leading Russian nuclear companies with solid expertise in the control system design for Russian and foreign nuclear stations guarantees that the process control system for Belarus will be made in time and to the strictest quality standards.

In 2006, a consortium of Russian companies was established to bring together designers and producers of automated process control systems; among them were NIIIS and other subsidiaries of Rosatom.

In March 2011, an agreement was signed between Russia and Belarus to construct in Belarus a nuclear power plant with two 1,200 MWe reactor units. The first Belarusian NPP is based on the AES-2006 design that follows all the IAEA recommendations. Rosatom acts as an EPC contractor for the project. 

Work is going full tilt at all the core and auxiliary facilities of Belarusian NPP Unit 1 and Unit 2, and ahead of the project schedule. The construction involves 21 subcontractors, including 17 companies from Belarus.

Environmental conditions on the site are regularly monitored, assures Andrey Kovkhuto, Belarusian Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection. “All our neighbors have nuclear stations while we experience a shortage of energy and have no other opportunity to solve the problem. Even such a small country as Slovakia has two nuclear stations. The nuclear power plant in Belarus is constructed with the latest technologies, and the entire process is tightly monitored. Speaking on behalf of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry, I would like to stress once again that we keep a close watch on soil, air and water conditions. Current environmental parameters will be benchmarked against those to be collected during the plant operation. Environmental safety was one of the criteria analyzed during the site selection,” the Minister said.