Belarusian students work as interns at Kalinin nuclear power plant in Russia

MINSK, 30 October (BelTA) – Twenty students of the Belarusian State University majoring in nuclear physics and technology have worked as interns at the Kalinin nuclear power plant in Tver Oblast, Russia. The internship was organized as part of the government program on training personnel for the Belarusian nuclear energy industry, representatives of the Russian state nuclear industry corporation Rosatom told BelTA.

The program on training specialists for the Belarusian nuclear power plant includes theoretical studies and hands-on training in the area of operation of reactor and turbine equipment.

The students spent two weeks being made familiar with peculiarities of electricity generation by water-moderated power reactors. They visited the main operating departments of the Kalinin nuclear power plant.

The students also spent some time in technical classrooms of the nuclear power plant's training and education center and in the full-scale reactor control room simulator.

According to Yevgeny Kolesnichenko, Deputy Chief Engineer for Personnel Training of the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant, the nuclear power plant has been used for many years as a facility to train future nuclear industry specialists. Internship at the Kalinin nuclear power plant allows them to acquire the knowledge and skills they will be able to use later on in the course of their careers, Yevgeny Kolesnichenko explained.

Oleg Semenovich, Senior Lecturer of the Nuclear Physics Department of the Physics Department of the Belarusian State University, noted: “Training personnel for the Belarusian nuclear power plant is a top priority. Internships at an operational nuclear power plant with the same type of the reactor unit play an important role in it. The Kalinin nuclear power plant is the most convenient facility in this regard. It is fitted with modern full-scale simulators and has extensive educational infrastructure – workshops, classrooms, and special training classrooms.”

The Kalinin nuclear power plant is located in the north of Tver Oblast. It comprises four energy units with water-moderated power reactors VVER-1000 with the output capacity of 1,000MW each.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is being built near Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast using a Russian design featuring two VVER-1200 reactors with the total output capacity of 2,400MW. The first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in January 2020.