“Rosatom”: No One Asked Us To Replace Reactor At Belarusian NPP

There are two different reactors in Belarus and Russia.

The general contractor of the Astravets NPP construction received no official statements regarding replacement of the reactor vessel from Belarus, BelSAT TV-channel reports.

“Rosatom considers it untimely to comment anything as we received no official statements from the Belarusian side,” – the state corporation’s press-center informs.

Earlier on Thursday, at a meeting with journalists in Tyumen, Russia, the Belarusian Minister of Energy Uladzimir Patupchyk informed that the damaged reactor vessel at the Astravets NPP would be replaced for a new one.

“The decision on replacement of the vessel has already been taken,” - Patupchyk stated.

The Minister did not specify the name of the subcontractor company, which let the incident at the NPP construction site happen. He only said it was a Russian company, included into the “Rosatom” structure.

The press-center of “Rosatom” also informs that it was the subcontractor company “Sezam” CJSC, which is responsible for the incident at the construction site, and it is not a part of the state corporation’s structure.

We remind, on July 10, during the trial installation of the reactor vessel, the 330-tons unit fell from a height of two to four meters. The Belarusian Ministry of Energy confirmed the incident really happened, after a long silence

After the information about the occurrence leaked to the media, the mounting of the reactor vessel was suspended.

“Rosatom” insisted it was an insignificant event: like, they were carrying the reactor vessel at the height of 4 meters, when the erecting crane broke. The vessel was mounted with an imbalance. Due to this reason, the vessel was hanging for over an hour until it “touched the ground”.

"Using words like "hitting the ground " or "downfall" is wrong, it misleads people", - first deputy general director of the corporation "Rosatom" Alexander Lokshin said at the time.

“This deviates what really happened, as the speed of the vessel’s movement did not surpass the speed of a pedestrian,” – Lokshin stated.

Later, “Rosatom” claimed their readiness to replace the reactor vessel.

The Belarusian NPP is being constructed under the Russian project “WBER-1200”. It will consist of two power blocks with the capacity of 1200 MVt each. The start of the first power block is planned in 2018, the second one – in 2020.

The general contractor of the Belarusian NPP construction is “Atomstroyeksport” (“Rosatom” structure).