The physical launch of unit 1 at the Belarusian NPP is scheduled for autumn 2019, Belarusian deputy energy minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk said on 15 April at the Atomexpo forum in Sochi, Russia. Equipment testing are underway and the next stages will include flushing of the primary and secondary circuits, cold and hot hydraulic pressure tests, and testing of sensors, pumps and valves, he said. Once testing is complete, fuel can be loaded into the reactor core. Two Russian VVER-1200 pressurised water reactor units are under construction at the Ostrovets site in Belarus, near the border with Lithuania. Construction of unit 1 began in November 2013 and of unit 2 in April 2014.
Earlier, on 5 April, Energy Minister Viktor Karankevich said preparations were proceeding to load dummy fuel assemblies into the reactor for the tests. The nuclear fuel will be delivered to the station later. Unit 1 is scheduled to be commissioned in 2019 and unit 2 in 2020. AtomStroyExport (ASE), the engineering subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, announced he same day that the first stage of commissioning had begun involving testing of equipment of the first and second circuits of the reactor including hydraulic tests and circulation flushing.
The programme for commissioning water-cooled power reactors consists of four stages, ASE said. These are: pre-commissioning; physical start-up; energy start-up; and experimental-industrial operation. "The main goal of the first stage is to check the performance of the design parameters of the systems and equipment of the reactor unit before starting to load the fuel," said Vitaly Polyanin, vice president and director of the Belarusian project at ASE. The hermetic enclosure of the reactor building is also being tested, he said.
