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Secrets of the Astravets NPP

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Secrets of the Astravets NPP
Photo: belta

Things happening at the Astravets NPP's construction site are a mystery not only for public, but for employees themselves.

Belsat is informed, according to residents of the Astravets district, security measures have been recently tightened. The NPP's administration explains it with security requirements. However, based on the fact that locals observe, measures primarily aim at hiding of safety losses which crop up.

"Three years ago there was information about cracks in the building sidewalks. It was removed at night and buried near Matski village," Mikalai Ulasevich, resident of Varnyany village, says.

Emergencies at the NPP Are not Accidental

The administration denied it, as well as recent fall of the reactor vessel; Mikalai Ulakhovich was the one who informed about it. Later that fact was acknowledged, and the agreement with the contractor was allegedly broken. But, according to some sources at the construction site, the mentioned contractor - Russian Sezam Company - still works at the Astravets NPP and will install the second reactor vessel.

This is the unprecedented case of the reactor vessel drop in the world and it occurred at the Astravets NPP. To verify the qualification of the contractor who dropped the reactor, journalists addressed to the Belstrojcentr - the national agency, providing a building license for every building organization in Belarus, and a foreign one, including the smallest subcontractor. It is reported that neither Sezam company nor Energoatominzhinering holding have not been licensed there.

"It does not comply with the law and provisions issued by our Ministry. These requirements are mandatory," architect Leonty Zdanevich said.

This is not the unique case at the NPP

Some Belarusian contractors have qualification, but for less complex work. Specialists explain that in accordance with the Belarusian certification system only organization of the first category can work at the NPP. Meanwhile, according to one of four main contractors at the NPP, they are just trying to get the first category license.

"Our current license is of the second category - to perform general contracting works, and now we are on the way to get the first category," Chief Engineer of OAO Stroitel Aliaksandr Tarnapovich explained.

Meanwhile, it has been working at the NPP since 2012. First, it help around. Two years ago it won the tender to build up the main objects at the plant and some of them are at completion stage.

"Construction and installation works are accomplished; equipment installation is being done in a training center. Automatic fire suppression pumping station, gas building, a dining room. These objects are directly based on the territory of the nuclear plant," Aliaksandr Tarnapovich noted.

Independent specialists acknowledge that the Belarusian certification system is very bureaucratic, and it does not mean that failure to obtain it for two and a half years by one of the main contractors involved in the plant construction cannot necessarily be an indicative of its incompetence. But they are concerned by the fact that instead of being tough and follow strict rules, the authorities constantly make compromises in safety issues, if it saves money and time.

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