Belarusian NPP Confirms Incident During Transportation Of New Reactor Vessel

According to the message published by the managing board of the Belarusian NPP, the incident at the railway happened indeed.

On December 26, the charter97.org website reported the incident with the new reactor vessel for the Belarusian NPP, with a reference to a Talochyn district resident. The source claimed that the vessel could be damaged during its transportation by railway as it grazed against the catenary mast.

In the afternoon on December 27, the managing board of the Belarusian NPP construction confirmed this information only partially in a conversation with euroradio.fm. According to the official representatives of the press-center of the managing board, the incident at the railway did happen, but it was not the reactor vessel which was insignificantly damaged, but the protecting metallic transportation cover.

“On December 26, 2016, during the maneuvering operations at the station of Slaunaye of the Belarusian Railways, in a reduced clearance, the protecting metallic transportation cover of the oversize cargo (the reactor vessel for the Belarusian NPP) insignificantly touched the catenary mast. No damages of the reactor vessel were revealed. The schedule of train movement remained unchanged. The cargo is moving further in accordance with the set schedule,” ― stated in the official message of the managing board of the Belarusian NPP construction.

The previous incident with the already delivered to the NPP construction site reactor vessel happened in June ― the large-tonnage metallic construction “slid to the ground” from a several meters height. There was no official information about the incident for several weeks then, but in the end, due to the publications in the media, the “Rosatom” admitted that the incident had indeed happened, and the Belarusian side expressed willingness to replace the reactor vessel for a new one.