The assembling of the reactor of the first power-generating unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant has begun, BelTA learned from representatives of the Russian state nuclear industry corporation Rosatom.
Specialists have finished flushing active and passive safeguards of the open reactor as one of the most important stages of the assembly process. Flushing was done to check the flow in the pipes connecting primary circuit equipment.
Vitaly Polyanin, supervisor of the Belarusian nuclear power plant construction project and Vice President of ASE Company (Rosatom’s engineering division), said: “Technological operations during the flushing stage confirmed the pipes had been installed well. Specialists will now start assembling the reactor in the run-up to the next important stage – hydraulic tests and circulation flushing of reactor compartment pipes using increased parameters.”
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.