OREANDA-NEWS. Meeting of the control board charged for the Belorussian NPP construction headed by Alexander Ozerets, Minister of Energy was held. The meeting was attended by representatives of the government of the Republic of Belarus, Directorate of the NPP construction (Customer), the merged company JSC NIAEP -JSC Atomstroyexport (General designer and Contractor), Belorussian subcontractors, and by representatives of the Administration of the Grodno region.

The participants inspected the construction site and discussed work progress on the storage and supply facilities. Close attention at the meeting was paid to a subject plan for 2013.

As Alexander Ozerets marked out, the schedule for 2013 is very intense since the government set the task to perform works thrice as large as in the previous year.

In the words of Yuri Pustovoy, JSC NIAEP Director of the Belorussian NPP construction, in September 2013 it is necessary to complete works on all the 62 structures of the storage and supply facilities and off-site structures of networks and constructions that provide complex functioning of the storage and supply facilities. Among the top-prior structures he listed as follows: off-site networks and structures of domestic and fire fighting water supply, building of special metallic constructions and reinforcement with a cold store, purifying facilities: off-site networks and structures of domestic and industrial sewage and storm water sewage. Pre-start activities on these structures are to start in April.

The issues of equipment procurement for the storage and supply facilities and for capital construction structures were also discussed during the meeting.

On February 1, 2013 started ditch excavation for Unit 2. Presently, works are being simultaneously executed on the both Units. Valery Limarenko, President of JSC NIAEP-managing company of JSC ASE, summed up the meeting: “Today we have discussed the issues calling for immediate solutions. Upon the whole, work on the NPP construction is proceeding very dynamically and ahead of schedule by several months.”

On March 15th, 2011, in Minsk, during meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State, cooperation agreement was signed between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of Belarus, concerning NPP construction in the territory of the country. According to the agreement the Russian party will accomplish "turnkey" construction. JSC Atomstroyexport will act as General Contractor, while the Directorate of NPP construction will be Customer. The Belorussian NPP will have two power units of total capacity up to 2400 (2x1200) MW to be constructed at Ostrovets site in Grodno region. For construction of the first Belorussian NPP the “AES-2006” project was selected to be implemented. The project fully complies with IAEA international standards and recommendations. On October 11th, 2011, contract agreement on NPP construction in Belarus was signed. The contract agreement is essentially a general agreement that defines the main mandatory provisions of the General contract on the Belorussian NPP construction.

The significant event of the recent period became the signing of Intergovernmental Agreement on loan to Belarus for NPP construction. Signed on 25th November during the meeting of the High Council of the Union State, the agreement establishes the legal base necessary for the project financing.

On 31st January 2012, a contract for survey works, development of basic and detailed design documentation for Belarus NPP project was signed.

On 18th July, 2012 on the meeting sums of the Council of Ministers of the Union State in the presence of prime ministers Dmitry Medvedev and Mikhail Myasnikov the general contract on construction of Belorussian NPP was signed.

The contract was signed by Valery Limarenko , Director of JSC NIAEP - JSC Atomstroyexport (JSC ASE), for the Russian party and Mikhail Filimonov, Director of General Board " Directorate of the NPP construction".