OREANDA-NEWS.  January 16, 2012. On the 11-th of January a meeting of the construction control panel of Baltic NPP which is being built in Neman District of Kaliningrad Region was held to become the first in the new year.

It was attended by representatives of Rosenergoatom, top management of NIAEP (principal contractor for pre-construction phase) Baltic NPP and subcontractors.

The meeting participants discussed the work progress at each facility and targets for 2012.

Summing up the results of 2011, Vyacheslav Makhonin, First Deputy Director of NIAEP and Director of the Baltic Branch, in his presentation emphasized that the overall plan had been fulfilled 102% and that of construction and installation works 104%. According to the 2012 program, the work scope is to triple. A number of construction workers of different trades are to be increased from the current 508 up to 1,500 people already in the first quarter. He charged each of the subcontractors to a man-assignment schedule and to engage at least 3,000 people by the end of this year.

“Today’s top priority task is to ensure execution of work with good quality at all NPP facilities and as per the construction schedule,” Makhonin emphasized. With that, he point out top managers of subcontractors engaged in the construction that people are provided with all necessary and safe conditions of work in the winter season.

At the present time 573 persons are engaged in the Baltic NPP construction, of them 487 are residents of Kaliningrad Region.

“We have obtained all licenses and other permits necessary for construction of Unit 1,” Director of Rosenergoatom Branch – Directorate of Baltic Nuclear Power Plant under Construction – Yevgeny Vlasenko noted. He said that by the start of the active construction phase all support facilities have been prepared, necessary funds made available to result in a large volume of orders for purchasing necessary equipment placed. Some of it has already started coming.

A new composition of the integrated team has been approved to ensure continuous oversight on the site, Vlasenko said. It includes representatives of the Department for Industrial, Environmental and Nuclear Supervision for Kaliningrad Region and now they, due to high importance of the tasks being solved, are made directly reportable to Rostechnadzor.

Makhonin especially noted that the 2012 target plan provided that the design estimates being developed by Sob AEP should be available not less than a month prior the planned work start. This will also facilitate exact observance of the NPP construction schedule.