MOSCOW, 30 May (BelTA) – The nuclear power plant, which is being built near the town of Ostrovets, is primarily designed to supply electricity to Belarusian consumers, BelTA learned from Belarusian Deputy Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk on the sidelines of the international forum Atomexpo in Moscow on 30 May.
The official said: “We are building the nuclear power plant primarily for Belarusian consumers in order to make our economy competitive. Certainly, any manufacturer of any product may consider exporting it. If we turn out to be competitive on foreign markets, we will consider exporting.”
The Deputy Energy Minister said that negotiations during the Atomexpo forum would be held to discuss export among other matters. Apart from that, the Belarusian side will arrange a number of meetings with international experts to discuss preparations for launching the nuclear power plant. Details of nuclear fuel deliveries will be discussed with the TVEL company. Personnel training abroad will be talked over as well. For instance, Belarusian specialists will get on-the-job training at the Novovoronezh nuclear power plant. “We recognize the importance of training personnel to man the nuclear power plant in full. We expect a special IAEA mission to arrive in 2017-2018 to evaluate the nuclear power plant's readiness for operation,” added Mikhail Mikhadyuk.
The Belarusian nuclear power plant is a project to build an AES-2006 type nuclear power plant 18km away from Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. The BelNPP 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.
