24.03.2011
On March 15, 2011 Minsk witnessed a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Federal State, which resulted in signing an Agreement between the Governments of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus on cooperation in the construction of a nuclear power plant comprising two power units 1200 MW each. The document was signed by Sergei Kirienko, Head of the State Corporation Rosatom, and Alexander Ozerets, Minister of Energy of the Republic of Belarus.
Unit No.1 is scheduled for commissioning in 2017, and Unit No. 2 - in 2018.
The Belarus NPP will be constructed by Atomstroyexport JSC, a leading engineering company under the State Corporation Rosatom. Alexander Dybov, First Vice-President of Atomstroyexport, affirmed that the Russian side is ready to commission Unit 1 of the project, as previously agreed.
Alexander Dybov made a point that modern NPPs are equipped with high performance safety systems and are capable to withstand all possible natural disasters. He stated that “the Japanese NPP was commissioned in 1971 and lacks modern safety systems”. He also stressed that if the NPP had been equipped with independent channels of active and passive safety system used in upgraded Russian projects, the plant would have been capable to withstand tsunami and earthquake combined impact. In particular, Alexander Dybov reminded that state-of-the art Russian projects use a core catcher (corium localization device), which was first installed at Tianwan NPP, China, and so far has not had any analogs in the world.
Reference:
On November 28, 2008 the Republic of Belarus Government addressed a message to the Russian Federation Government stating that Belorussian specialists give preference to the Russian NPP design and suggested starting implementation of the project. On May 28, 2009 an Agreement on cooperation in the field of peaceful uses of atomic energy was signed between the Governments of two countries at the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Federal State in Minsk.
The Republic of Belarus will have two power units of total capacity up to 2400 (2х1200) MW. General contractor’s obligations are imposed on Atomstroyexport JSC. As envisaged, the Belorus NPP will be constructed under the full responsibility of the general contractor according to ‘AES-2006’ design developed by JSC ‘SPb Atomenergoproyect’. The project will be located at the Ostrovezk construction site, Grodna region. The Belorus NPP design complies with international codes and standards and IAEA guidelines, it provides for enhanced safety and high technical and economic indices. The main advantage of the project is a high protection level, ensured by independent channels of active and passive safety systems.
