Belarus might build another NPP in east - Lukashenko

MINSK. Aug 11 (Interfax) - Belarus might build a second nuclear power plant, which could be located in the eastern part of the country, President Alexander Lukashenko said.

"We'll be switching to electric [transport]. After all, we have not built a nuclear power plant without reason," the SB. Belarus Today state-run publication quoted Lukashenko as saying while meeting with employees of organizations operating at Minsk National Airport on Friday.

"I have this wild idea of building another nuclear power plant in the east," he said.

The first Belarusian NPP is located near the city of Ostrovets (Astravets) in the Grodno region in the northwestern part of the country, close to the border with Lithuania and Poland. It has been built in line with the Russian VVER-1200 project and operates two 1.2 GW power units. The general contractor for the NPP construction is ASE Group, an engineering division of Rosatom. A Russian government loan of $10 billion was drawn down to finance the project. Unit 1 was hooked up to the grid in November 2020 and Unit 2 in May 2023.

Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said in 2021 that the president had ordered analyzing the construction of another NPP in a different part of Belarus. "The matter is not very easy, and it requires a large amount of scientific research, not only economic calculations, based on a comprehensive development program for the country," Golovchenko said.