About 7,000 people are employed at the construction site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant at present, Press Secretary of the Belarusian Energy Ministry Zhanna Zenkevich said during a media tour of the nuclear power plant for Belarusian and Russian reporters on March 28.
As many as 41 subcontractors, including 23 Belarusian ones and 18 Russian ones, are busy building the Belarusian nuclear power plant. The number of construction workers is close to 7,000 people. General construction operations are nearly finished at the first unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. Electric installation operations and heat systems installation operations are in full swing. The reactor pressure vessel of the first unit was fully installed on April 1, 2017. The welding of the main circulation line was finished on September 7, 2017. A turbine unit, process equipment, and pipelines are being installed in the turbine building. Work is in progress to build the internal protective shell in the reactor building of the second unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant.
The reactor pressure vessel of the second unit was installed in December 2017. Steam generators were installed in their designated positions on January 12. Work to install equipment is in progress in the turbine building of the second unit.
The Belarusian nuclear power plant is being built using the Russian standard Generation III+ design AES-2006 near Ostrovets, Grodno region. The first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in December 2019, with the second one to go online in July 2020. (BelTA/Business World Magazine)