Assembly of the reactor has been completed at unit 2 of the Belarus NPP in preparation for cold and hot testing, Rosatom’s engineering division said on 23 March. The assembly process included the installation of in-vessel elements, loading of dummy fuel assemblies into the reactor, installation of a block of protective pipes and the reactor cover. Specialists will now start filling the primary circuit of the reactor plant with chemically demineralised water and, after obtaining the appropriate permits, they will begin the testing programme.
Belarus NPP will consist of two Russian supplied VVER-1200 power units. The plant was issued a permit for pilot industrial operation of unit 1 in December and it was connected to the grid earlier in March. It is expected that the unit 1 will be put into commercial operation in 2021 and unit 2 in 2022. The engineering division of Rosatom includes ASE EC JSC (Nizhny Novgorod), Atomstroyexport JSC (Nizhny Novgorod), Atomenergoproekt JSC (Moscow), Atomproekt JSC (St Petersburg) and others enterprises.
