Russia's NIAEP expects to get license to build Belarusian nuclear plant Aug 15
MINSK. July 16 (Interfax) - NIAEP, the Russian general contractor for the construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus, said it is ready to start pouring concrete for the first unit of the plant and expects a construction license to be issued on August 15.
"We have complete technical readiness for the first concrete at the No. 1 generating unit. We expect the documents to be processed properly - a decree of the Belarusian president to be issued and a license to be granted," NIAEP president Valery Limarenko said at a meeting of the operations center for construction of the plant held at the end of last week, state nuclear corporation Rosatom reported.
NIAEP is the management company for Atomstroyexport (ASE), the Russian contractor for construction of nuclear power plants abroad.
"According to Belarusian First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko, the license for construction of the No. 1 generating unit is to be issued on August 15," Limarenko said at the meeting.
The license to build the second unit of the plant is expected to be issued in September 2013.
NIAEP's director for construction of the Belarusian NPP, Yury Pustovoi said 1.8 billion Russian rubles were spent on the construction of the first and second units and the production base in the first half of 2013, 150% more than in the same period last year.
The first facilities of the plant - offsite mains and water supply installations, drainage and sewage systems, and a number of engineering and social facilities - are to be handed over to a government inspection commission by August 15. The remaining facilities of the production base will be handed over to government inspectors according to schedule in September-October.
Pustovoi said that work is scheduled to be completed in September on all 62 facilities of the production base and offsite utilities and installations that will support the operation of the production base.
Rosatom said that under the contract the concrete work for the main phase of plant construction was initially supposed to start in the fourth quarter of 2013. Construction is therefore a few months ahead of schedule, the company said.
Belarus and Russia essentially concluded the process of signing the main documents for this project with a signing of the general construction contract in Minsk in July 2012.
Belarus' first NPP, with capacity of 2,400 MW, is being built near the town of Ostrovets in the Grodno region. The plant will be based on the AES-2006 design, which fully meets international standards and the recommendations of the International Atomic Energy Agency.