Rosatom's cooperation with Belarus to continue after commissioning of nuclear power plant

MINSK, 19 May (BelTA) – Rosatom's cooperation with Belarus will continue developing after the Belarusian nuclear power plant is commissioned, BelTA learned from Director General of the Russian state nuclear industry corporation Rosatom Alexey Likhachev.

The Rosatom director general said: “We are in the final stage of commissioning of the second unit [of the Belarusian nuclear power plant]. On the one hand, it is routine for us because it is already the sixth unit featuring a VVER-1200 reactor that we are commissioning in Russia and Belarus. On the other hand, there is still excitement because not all the experiments and tests have been completed. I support Roman Aleksandrovich [Golovchenko, Prime Minister of Belarus], who said that nothing will end once the commissioning process is over. We expect it to happen in Q4 2023. We've promised to the government and Belarus President Aleksandr Grigoryevich Lukashenko that we will build the nuclear power plant as if it was our own. During the operation stage we will treat the Belarusian nuclear power plant kind of like our own. I mean we will involve it in all our personnel training programs, further improvement of safeguards, in the huge work we are doing with regard to fuel.”

Rosatom has also made some headway into nuclear non-energy technologies and non-nuclear technologies. The executive said: “Within the framework of the Union State of Belarus and Russia we have to ensure technological sovereignty together with our Belarusian partners. I am talking about projects concerning composites, 3D printing, and energy accumulators. Apart from that, while working with digital companies of Belarus, we found very high competences and several alliances are now happening in the sphere of acquisition of digital sovereignty. We don't forget about the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus either: quanta, photonics are future technologies. Nuclear medicine should also become a matter of close attention.”

The Belarusian nuclear power plant uses the Russian design AES-2006 featuring two VVER-1200 reactors with the total output capacity of 2,400MW. It is an evolutionary nuclear power plant design with third-generation water-moderated reactors. Such designs boast improved technical and economic parameters. A combination of active and passive safeguards is their key feature.