Belarus-2 receives construction licence
31 December 2014
The Belarusian nuclear power plant has received a construction licence for the second unit, the press service of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry has told BelTA news agency.
The ministry's board took the decision to issue the licence on 30 December, following its review of documents that support the nuclear and radiation safety of the project.
The plant, under construction at Ostrovets, will consist of two power-generating units with the total generating capacity of up to 2400MW (1200MW each). The Russian design AES-2006 has been chosen to build the power plant.
Russia's Atomenergomash delivered the core catcher for unit 2 to the plant's construction site in November. A core catcher is a device provided to catch the molten core material - corium - of a nuclear reactor in case of a nuclear meltdown and prevent it from escaping the containment building.
The core catcher for Belarus-1 was delivered to the plant site in October last year. The license to build that unit was issued in April.
Construction of unit 2 started in June, following the pouring of first concrete for the reactor's basemat.
Both units are scheduled to start operation by 2020.
The design is fully compliant with international standards and IAEA recommendations. The Russian merged company OAO NIAEP – ZAO Atomstroyexport (ASE) is the general designer and the general contractor for building the power plant.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News