16 Jan 2025 13:06

Belarus needs second NPP - Lukashenko

MINSK. Jan 16 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has again called for building a second nuclear power plant in Belarus.

"I am increasingly confident that we should build a second NPP," the Belarusian state-run news agency BelTA quoted Lukashenko as saying during a visit to the Minsk City Techno-Park.

Demand for electricity has been growing in industries and households, alongside the constant increase in the number of electric vehicles, Lukashenko said.

Lukashenko had repeatedly called for building a second nuclear power plant or a third reactor unit at the Belarusian NPP at the border with Lithuania. He tasked the Energy Ministry with drafting a feasibility study of the project, the results of which would be released this year.

The Belarusian NPP in Ostrovets in the Grodno region was built by the Russian VVER-1200 project. The plant has two reactor units each of 1.2GW. Rosatom's ASE Group was the general contractor, and a $10-billion state loan from Russia funded the project.

The first reactor unit of the Belarusian NPP was connected to the grid in November 2020 and put into commercial operation in June 2021, while the second unit was connected to the grid in May 2023 and put into commercial operation in November 2023.

The Belarusian NPP generated about 15.7 billion kW/h of electricity in 2024, up 34% from 2023.