Nuclear fuel will be delivered to BelNPP in summer

08:51 / 26.02.2019

Nuclear fuel will be delivered to Belarusian NPP site this summer, Deputy Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk told today before a board meeting of the Ministry of Energy, BelTA has learned.

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"In world practice, fuel is usually supplied a month and a half before the start of the reactor. Fuel is prepared, but its delivery is not an end. I think we will deliver it in summer, a specific date will be determined as necessary. It can be held at the end of May - June, as the general contractor plans," Mikhail Mihadyuk said.

According to the Deputy Minister, today all the basic infrastructure has been prepared for the delivery of fuel - railway and road routes, transshipment stations, as well as a room for storing nuclear fuel. The operation to ensure the physical protection of fuel at the site of the nuclear power plant is at completion stage. “We are ready to receive fuel in a high degree of completion, but we will deliver it at the same time as it happens in world practice,” Mikhail Mikhadyuk stated.

After the delivery of fuel, a tighter mode of protection and admission of builders, installers and installers to certain rooms will be organized in the plant. "We must understand that, taking into account a more rigid mode, the commissioning work that still needs to be carried out at the plant will be slowed down. Therefore, we will deliver fuel when it is in demand," the Deputy Minister concluded.

As reported, a batch of nuclear fuel for initial loading into the reactor of the first power unit of  Belarusian NPP was manufactured at Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrates Plant (part of Rosatom fuel company TVEL). In this batch, 163 fuel assemblies are designed for initial loading into the reactor, the remaining 17 pieces will be delivered to the reserve.

Белорусская АЭС с двумя реакторами ВВЭР-1200 суммарной мощностью 2400 МВт строится по российскому проекту вблизи Островца (Гродненская область). Первый энергоблок планируется ввести в эксплуатацию в 2019 году, второй - в 2020 году.


Текст: Главный администратор