Belarus To Return Belarusian NPP Reactor Vessel To Russia

The Russian side should bear all expenses on replacement of the fallen reactor vessel of the Belarusian NPP.

Belarus is returning the reactor vessel after an emergency situation in compliance with the agreements with Russia, General Director of the general design contractor “Belarusian NPP” Mikhail Filimonau has said on the sidelines of the 60th session of the IAEA General Conference in Vienna, BelTA informs.

“The vessel is one of the units of the equipment. Such issues are never solved very quickly, it is necessary to take into account the functioning of the railways and other issues. Everything is happening in compliance with the agreements that we have with Russia. The Russian side will take the reactor vessel, this is set, such decision has been taken, and then the process of its realization will start,” — Mikhail Filimonau has clarified.

The General Director has stressed that the construction is continued in the regular regime, they are mounting the equipment now. “A considerable part of the equipment has already been delivered to the construction site in Astravets and is at the stage of mounting now. For instance, they are mounting the turbines at the moment,” — Mikhail Filimonau has informed. Approximately 40% of the equipment is in the process of manufacturing.

We remind, the mentioned incident took place at the construction site of the Belarusian NPP on July 10 this year. The reactor vessel for the Belarusian NPP slid along the straps and touched the ground while moving. It happened because the builders violated the instruction for cargo slinging. According to “Rosatom”, the emergency situation ended with no damage of the reactor vessel.

A month later, Belarus took the decision to replace the reactor vessel. “Rosatom” agreed to Minsk’s position, having made it clear that they considered the reason for replacing not the issue of security, but the public opinion.

The Belarusian side insisted that it was decided to replace the vessel after the analysis of the documents set by the specialists who came to the conclusion it was impossible to verify the security of the vessel.

The first block of the Belarusian NPP was planned to start in 2018, the second one — in 2020. It remains unknown how the schedule will be shifted. We can assume that it will be no less than for 2 years. The industrial cycle of production of VVER-1200 reactor since the beginning of production of billets to the shipment makes 840 days. It is expected that, under the contract, the costs of the reactor vessel replacement will fall on the general contractor — JSC "Atomenergoexport" division of "Rosatom".