Unit 1 of the Belarus NPP under construction at Ostrovets has been connected to its own source of power supply, ASE (a subsidiary of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom) announced on 1 March. ASE also said that concreting of the reactor dome of unit 2 had also been completed. An intergovernmental agreement between Russia and Belarus for construction of the NPP was signed in March 2011. The plant is being built based on Russia’s VVER-1200 AES-2006 design, with unit 1 scheduled for commissioning in 2020 and unit 2 in 2021. Construction of unit 1 began in November 2013 and of unit 2 in April 2014.
ASE said both "backup auxiliary transformers" had been put into operation at unit 1. Vitaly Polyanin, director of the Belarus NPP project at ASE, explained that this will make it possible to test the electric motors of the unit's main circulation pumps in preparation for hydrotesting of the reactor installation. “Then, in accordance with the construction schedule, the scrolling of the electric motors and the flushing of the pipelines of the condensate feed line for the machine room will begin,” he said.
At unit 2, concreting of the outer containment building dome was completed on schedule, ASE said. RosSEM Trust, which began concreting the dome in November 2017, has laid a total of 3043 cubic metres of concrete. The structure is 15.6 metres high with a diameter of 51.6 metres. Installation of the passive heat removal systems through steam generators can now start in preparation for commissioning. The two VVER-1200 pressurised water reactors are provided with both internal and external protective containment. The inner shell is part of a passive safety system that prevents the release of radioactive substances into the environment in the event of a hypothetical accident. Both the inner and outer containments provide physical protection against natural and man-made disasters, including earthquakes and hurricanes.
