On March 17, a delegation of the RF State Duma deputies headed by Pavel Zavalny, Chairman of the Energy Committee, has visited during a working trip the largest Union State energy project, i .e. the Belarus NPP (its general designer and general contractor being the Engineering Division of Rosatom State Corporation).
The Russian members of parliament have taken part in a technical tour to the facilities of the operating power unit No.1 of the BelNPP and got acquainted with the progress of the pre-commissioning work at power unit No. 2. Moreover, the site of the Belarus NPP has hosted a visiting conference of the State Duma deputies on the Russian-Belarusian cooperation in construction and operation of the nuclear power plant on the territory of Belarus; this meeting has been attended by representatives of the Republican Ministry of Energy and Gosatomnadzor, members of the Belarus Parliament, leaders of the Belarus NPP, representatives of Rosatom State Corporation and the National Operator for Radioactive Waste Management.
The visit of the members of the Russian Parliament to the Republic of Belarus on March 16-18 this year was organized upon the initiative of the State Duma Council and with assistance of the Rosatom State Corporation. The main purpose of the visit to Belarus is to establish direct parliamentary contacts on energy cooperation and check out the progress of the project for construction of nuclear power units at the Belarus NPP.
At the working meetings, issues related to the implementation of the joint Union State programmes for the development of united markets of electricity, gas, oil and oil products have been settled; opportunities for further Russian-Belarusian cooperation in the nuclear industry and radioactive waste management have been considered; and options for the joint work on import substitution in the fuel and energy complex and the expanded use of gas motor fuel and LNG in transport and gasification have been discussed.
“The Russian nuclear industry is one of the leaders in high-tech industries both in Russia and worldwide, to involve nuclear energy, as well as new materials and technologies, power engineering, wind energy, artificial intelligence, waste management, medicine and much more. And we are ready to share all this with our partners on mutually beneficial conditions. The construction of two Belarus NPP units is the largest of the joint investment projects implemented by our countries, and a shining example of such partnership. The agenda of bilateral cooperation is consistently expanding in non-energy areas of nuclear technologies, such as nuclear medicine, new materials, information technologies. Russia is ready to offer the latest developments beneficial to boosting the integration processes of our countries,” said Pavel Zavalny, Chairman of the RF State Duma Committee on Energy, following his visit to the Belarus NPP.
For reference:
The Belarus NPP having two VVER-1200 reactors with the total capacity of 2,400 MW is being constructed in Ostrovets (the Republic of Belarus). The Russian GenIII+ design was chosen for the first nuclear power plant in Belarus, which fully complies with the international standards and the safety requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). On June 10, 2021, the Belarus NPP Unit 1, the first nuclear facility of the latest III+ generation to be built abroad under the Russian technologies, was taken over for commercial operation. At power unit 2, the works at the “physical start-up” stage are underway. Specialists are getting ready to bring the power unit reactor plant to the minimum controlled level (MCL). Reaching the MCL (less than 1% of the rated power) is the final part of testing at the physical startup stage of the power unit, helping to carry out measurements and check the physical characteristics of the reactor core in a safe manner, to meet the project requirements.
