Belarus, Russia benefit at every stage of nuclear station construction

Cooperation at every stage of the construction and consequent operation of the Belarusian nuclear power plant will be mutually beneficial for enterprises and organizations of Belarus and Russia. In no way does it mean an increase in dependence of one country on the other, Mr Alexander Merten, Vice President of the company Rusatom Overseas, told media in Minsk on 2 April.

BelTA has been told that “It doesn’t mean any dependence on Russia. It will mean the necessary and mutually beneficial cooperation of all the structures involved in the generation of nuclear energy, including nuclear fuel production, the treatment of spent nuclear fuel and so on. Everything will be regulated by contracts and will be implemented in line with existing agreements,” said the Rusatom Overseas Vice President.

Alexander Merten pointed out that very few countries produce nuclear fuel while many countries operate nuclear stations. “However, it doesn’t make one country dependent on another one. Moreover, once a nuclear power plant is operational, it is impossible to cease the operation and turn off some nuclear fuel delivery line,” he remarked.

Signed on 1 February, the Belarus-Russia intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in nuclear power engineering stipulates that among other things personnel training for the nuclear power plant as well as the preparation of the legal base, interaction with the regulating government agency, and many other things will take into account interests of the Belarusian side as much as possible.

Apart from that, there are plans to get as many Belarusian specialists involved as possible in all the stages of the station’s operation after its commissioning. “I am confident that Belarus has a huge potential in this sphere. Many specialists will be trained here. In their time very many Belarusian citizens and natives of Belarus graduated from relevant universities. They worked and still work at various nuclear power installations in Russia, Ukraine, and other countries. I think they will be pleased to hear the offer to work at the Belarusian nuclear power plant,” remarked Alexander Merten.

The Rusatom Overseas representative also explained that the Belarusian station is a reference project for his company, because the Belarusian side has secured exemplary organization of the works involved in preparing for the station’s construction. “You can bring tourists here to show how things should be organized and built, what a professional approach is all about,” remarked Alexander Merten.

ZAO Rusatom Overseas is a company of the Russian state corporation Rosatom. The company was set up in 2011 to promote Russian nuclear technologies on the global market. Rusatom Overseas also acts as the developer of Rosatom’s overseas projects, which are implemented using the scheme build-own-operate. At present the company is implementing 19 projects across the globe.