MINSK, 19 November (BelTA) – The startup and backup boiler house of the first unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant has been commissioned, BelTA learned from ASE Group representatives.
All the four electrode boilers in the boiler house now operate at 20% of the designed capacity. They allow generating saturated steam for technological needs of the nuclear power plant, including steam to heat auxiliary premises in the startup facilities of the first unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. As more heating systems become ready, more facilities will be connected to the startup and backup boiler house.
The boiler house will allow providing optimal temperatures for construction, installation, startup, and commissioning work in the startup facilities during winter, noted Vitaly Polyanin, supervisor of the Belarusian nuclear power plant construction project and Vice President of ASE Company (Rosatom's engineering division).
Among other things the steam can be used for vital startup and commissioning operations: hot trial runs of the reactor unit and vacuum buildup in the turbine condenser. When the nuclear power plant is fully up and running, the backup boiler house is used during scheduled repairs and will take care of the safe operation of the power-generating unit in an emergency.
The Belarusian nuclear power plant is being built using a Russian design featuring VVER-1200 reactors near Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. The first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2019, with the second one to go online in 2020. The first batch of nuclear fuel is supposed to be delivered to the nuclear power plant till the end of 2018.
