Belarusian NPP design praised as most technologically advanced

The design of the Belarusian nuclear power plant (NPP) is the most advanced one, Belarus’ Deputy Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk said during an online conference on the future of Belarus’ energy system hosted by BelTA on 23 October, BelTA has learnt.

“We think that our design is the most advanced in terms of active and passive security systems and technical solutions,” noted Mikhail Mikhadyuk. “The Russian side thoroughly analyzed what had happened in Fukushima and made some improvements to our design. This is why we can say that the design is field-proven,” he noted.

The operation of a similar power unit in China showed that its reliability level is one of the highest in the world, Mikhail Mikhadyuk underlined. That is why Belarus did the right choice with the main contractor for the NPP. “We made the right choice. The next objective is to build the power unit economically and to high standards,” the Deputy Minister said.

In his words, the state atomic energy corporation Rosatom is a worldwide leader in construction of nuclear power units. “The Russian Federation is currently building units in India, China and Turkey and has already signed contracts to build NPPs in Vietnam and Bangladesh. In the next few days a Bangladeshi delegation will visit the construction site of the Belarusian NPP to get familiar with our experience. Our colleagues from Vietnam and Turkey have already visited the site,” Mikhail Mikhadyuk stressed.

All in all, 31 countries operate 434 nuclear power units, with 70 more being under construction, of which 29 are in China, ten in Russia and seven in India.

Construction works at Belarusian NPP to start in November

The main construction works at the Belarusian nuclear power plant (NPP) are expected to start in November 2013, Head of Belarus' office of Nizhny Novgorod Engineering Company Atomenergoproyekt, Director for the Construction of the Belarusian NPP Yuri Pustovoi told an online conference hosted by BelTA on 23 October.

“The Russian party assesses the progress at the construction site as satisfactory. There are no schedule delays. The main construction works will start in November,” he stressed.

In his words, “only highly qualified construction organizations are involved in the project”. “All the works are in full swing,” Yuri Pustovoi added.

The Russian design AES 2006 with a water-water energetic reactor WWER-1200 was chosen to build a nuclear power plant in Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast, Belarus. the project implementation period is contained in the general contract that envisages the commissioning of the first power-generating unit in November 2018 and the second one in July 2020. The Belarusian nuclear power plant will boast two power-generating units with the total output capacity up to 2,400MW. The annual average production of electricity will reach 17.095.1 million kWh.

Pustovoi: 95% of machines at Belarus’ NPP construction site was made in Belarus

Some 95% of machines used at the Belarusian nuclear power plant construction site was made in Belarus, Head of OAO NIAEP Office in Belarus - director for building the Belarusian nuclear power plant Yuri Pustovoi said during an online conference on the BelTA website on 23 October.

“The equipment that we brought here includes several units of equipment to cut fittings, one tower crane and a unique, very expensive 750-tonne crane that will mount the heaviest equipment,” he said.

Speaking about the control over the construction of the nuclear power plant, Yuri Pustovoi emphasized that the process has many stages. “First of all, we inform the Belarusian companies about our requirements and provide them with the list of rules and specification documents. It means that the first stage of control is exercised by the contracting companies. At the second stage, OAO NIAEP Office in Belarus exercises random control. If any questions emerge, we will check everything multiple times. The third stage involves the Russian company VPO Zarubezhatomenergostroy that controls the important systems and equipment that are supplied and mounted at nuclear power plants. The control is very serious. The company drafts a plan and a schedule of checks as well as a quality plan and makes sure everything is checked thoroughly,” he said.

Stringent quality assurance system at Belarusian NPP construction site

The quality of works at the construction site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant is under close control, Deputy Energy Minister of Belarus Mikhail Mikhadyuk told an online press conference "The future of the Belarusian energy system: energy and environmental aspects” on the website of BelTA.

“I want to say that we hold operational meetings under the chairmanship of First Vice Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko on a monthly basis,” he said. In addition, an inter-ministerial commission has been set up by order of the Prime Minister to monitor these issues as well. "If necessary, if there are any inconsistencies at the interdepartmental level, relevant decisions are taken to correct them,” said Mikhail Mikhadyuk.

The Deputy Minister stated that Belarus has built the stringent quality assurance and quality control system at the construction site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. “First, the general contract has a relevant unit. Certain staff of the Directorate for the NPP Construction supervise these issues: the acceptance of works, quality control, design documentation,” he said. The regulators also include Gospromnadzor and the relevant unit at the Emergencies Minsitry that performs routine quality checks over the course of the works. The system also includes governmental bodies such as Gosstroynadzor of Belarus and other supervisory authorities.

As it was reported the general contractor and the general customer use a special automated system of quality control which envisages a strict observance of the whole technological regulation and which makes it impossible to advance to a new stage of construction and equipment installation without the confirmation of quality parameters related to the previous stage. “We agreed with the general contractor OAO Nizhny Novgorod Engineering Company Atomenergoproject (NIAEP) that if a subcontractor faults in something or does not fulfill at least one of the terms of the contract, then he immediately leaves the project forever,” said Mikhail Mikhadyuk earlier.

The Belarusian NPP is being constructed according to a Russian design and is compliant with the national legislation and IAEA requirements. The Belarusian NPP will be based on the NPP-2006 design developed by the Saint Petersburg Atomenergoproyekt Institute. The same project is used in the construction of the Leningrad NPP-2 and the Baltic NPP. The Belarusian NPP will include two power units with the total capacity of up to 2,400MW. The first power unit is set to be commissioned in 2018.

Belarusian nuclear station to reduce electricity prices

The commissioning of the Belarusian nuclear power plant will allow slowing down the increase in electricity prices against the background of existing dynamics of prices for external energy resources. The statement was made by Belarusian Deputy Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk at the online conference hosted by the BelTA website on 23 October.

Nuclear power plants are the source of the cheapest electricity all over the world. According to preliminary estimates, the Belarusian nuclear power plant will generate about 27-30% of the electricity Belarus consumes.

Mikhail Mikhadyuk added that the Energy Ministry and the Economy Ministry are busy trying to improve tariff policies in Belarus. The matter has been repeatedly discussed by the government. Apart from that, the Energy Ministry is preparing several regulations on the matter.

“Cross-subsidizing is a sore point now. The real sector of the economy has to cover that part of the costs involved in generating electricity and heat energy that the population does not fully pay for,” said the Deputy Energy Minister. The strategy to stop cross-subsidizing is stipulated by the program to guide Belarus’ social and economic development in 2011-2015. In line with the program Belarusian households are supposed to cover 60% of the cost by late 2015.

“By 2015 Belarusians are also expected to cover 100% of the economically justified cost of the electricity and natural gas used to cook food. It will be one of the incentives to save fuel and energy resources. People don’t try to save resources if the resources are cheap,” noted the official.

Once cross-subsidizing is removed, the burden on the real sector will be reduced, thus enhancing the competitive ability of Belarusian products. “However, the current efforts to reduce the tariff burden have to keep in mind real revenues of Belarusians,” stressed Mikhail Mikhadyuk.

Belarusian power grid controls ready for nuclear station launch

A number of measures has been worked out in Belarus to regulate the operation of the power grid after the nuclear power plant is launched in 2018. The information was released by Belarusian Deputy Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk at the online conference hosted by the BelTA website on 23 October.

The measures are vital for the effective operation of the power grid 24/7. According to Mikhail Mikhadyuk, the difficulty lies in the fact that cogeneration plants that produce electricity and heat make up the foundation of the Belarusian power grid. It is economically profitable to operate such power plants at maximum capacity, explained the Deputy Energy Minister. The official admitted there is a problem with keeping the workload of heat power plants unchanged during night hours, when electricity consumption is at its lowest, in order to keep the heat power plants effective after the nuclear power plant is commissioned.

The problem was probed even before the nuclear power plant construction started. Detailed analysis is now in progress to work out compensating measures. Mikhail Mikhadyuk said that one of the suggested effective solutions is using electric boilers to heat water in special heat-accumulating tanks during the night and using the water for heating purposes during the day. Economic benefits are gained by exploiting the difference in electricity costs: at peak consumption electricity is expensive while electricity is cheap at lowest consumption. There are plans to build several powerful electric boilers of the kind. “A simple solution can achieve a significant economic effect. It is but one of the set of measures that have been worked out,” noted the Deputy Energy Minister.

According to the official, due to geographic conditions Belarus cannot build hydroaccumulator power plants where electric pumps transport water into a reservoir during the night and during the day the water propels turbines and generators of the power plant. “The same principle is used for electric boilers: cheap electricity is used at night to accumulate, let’s say, the useful effect so that it could be used at the time of the power grid’s maximum workload, in the period when electricity is most expensive,” explained the Deputy Energy Minister.

Mikhail Mikhadyuk also mentioned some measures to tune tariffs to encourage all the consumers, including industrial enterprises, to spread their electricity consumption more evenly between the day and the night. For instance, if a major enterprise uses a foundry with electric furnaces that use a lot of electricity for production purposes, it can add a night shift in order to reduce electricity costs.

Minsk to set up nuclear information center in 2014

The nuclear information center will be set up in Minsk in 2014, Deputy Energy Minister of Belarus Mikhail Mikhadyuk told an online press conference "The future of the Belarusian energy system: energy and environmental aspects” on the website of BelTA, BelTA learned.

According to Mikhail Mikhadyuk, the Belarusian energy industry is open to the media and to the public: "We are always ready to provide the necessary information if someone is interested." In addition, Mikhail Mikhadyuk noted that several years ago the information center was launched in Ostrovets. It provides full information about the Belarusian nuclear power plant project and nuclear power. It has been visited by more than 6,000 people. "Those wishing to visit the site of the nuclear power plant are many, and we arrange tours for both media and public organizations to the construction site and to the information center in Ostrovets," said Mikhail Mikhadyuk.

Today the issue of opening the information center in Minsk is being considered together with the Russian partners. “We already have certain arrangements. I think that in 2014, we will open the nuclear information center with the help of Rosatom at the students’ center of scientific and technical creativity in Minsk,” Mikhail Mikhadyuk said.

Manufacturing base of Belarusian nuclear plant to be built by year-end

The manufacturing base of the Belarusian nuclear power plant will be ready by the end of the year, Deputy Energy Minister of Belarus Mikhail Mikhadyuk told an online press conference "The future of the Belarusian energy system: energy and environmental aspects” on the website of BelTA, BelTA learned.

“We are in the final stage of building the manufacturing base. The main facilities of the manufacturing base are almost ready. After that the bulk of the work on the site will begin. These preparatory works will be completed in full by the end of the year,” he said.

According to Mikhail Mikhadyuk, today the preparatory works for the construction of the nuclear power plant are on schedule. "A few days ago we had a regular operational meeting and took a detailed review of these issues," he said.

With regard to the site, according to Mikhail Mikhadyuk, preparations are in full swing, in accordance with the legislation and project documentation. These works are almost complete. After that we will be ready to proceed to the construction of the major objects of the nuclear power plant, he noted.

The Belarusian NPP is being constructed according to a Russian design and is compliant with the national legislation and IAEA requirements. The Belarusian NPP will be based on the NPP-2006 design developed by the Saint Petersburg Atomenergoproyekt Institute. The same project is used in the construction of the Leningrad NPP-2 and the Baltic NPP. The Belarusian NPP will include two power units with the total capacity of up to 2,400MW. The first power unit is set to be commissioned in 2018.

Belarusian nuclear station fully staffed by late 2016

All the personnel for the Belarusian nuclear power plant will be hired by late 2016. The statement was made by Belarusian Deputy Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk at the online conference hosted by the BelTA website on 23 October.

People for future executive positions in the main departments of the nuclear power plant have been hired so far.

A government program is in progress to train personnel for the Belarusian nuclear energy industry in 2008-2010. The document focuses on several areas. One of them is training specialists in universities. New departments have been opened in four Belarusian universities lately. “Yesterday at a meeting with the Head of the Physics Department of the Belarusian State University we talked to the students, who will graduate next year. And we determined which ones will be hired to operate the nuclear station. The same work has been done in the Belarusian National Technical University and other universities,” explained Mikhail Mikhadyuk.

Apart from that, the personnel now employed at conventional cogeneration plants are being retrained. “Nuclear power plants use a lot of equipment employed by heat power plants,” noted the Deputy Energy Ministry. Mikhail Mikhadyuk added that work was in progress to select specialists and send them for training in the relevant educational centers of Russia and Ukraine. The relevant arrangements had been made with these countries already, he said.

The new nuclear power plant will also use specialists with experience of operating a nuclear power plant. In particular, personnel of Lithuania’s Ignalina nuclear power plant will be hired.

According to Mikhail Mikhadyuk, in 2013 or in early 2014 they will begin building a training center that will feature a full-scale simulator for the sake of training nuclear station personnel. Highly qualified trainers with the necessary experience will operate the center.