Belarusian nuclear plant’s Unit 1 generates 14bn kWh

April 26, BPN. The Astraviec Nuclear Power Plant generated 14.05 billion kilowatt-hours as of March 26, according to an update on the Belarusian energy ministry’s website.

The plant’s Unit 1 began supplying electricity to the grid on November 3, 2020. Despite scheduled and unscheduled outages, the facility produced 10 billion kilowatt-hours by early December 2022. The unit was idle for some six-and-a-half months because of protracted preventive maintenance.

The next maintenance is scheduled for Q4, 2023.

In March, Alaksandr Łukašenka called radiation safety a top priority, describing the Astraviec NPP a national treasure. At the same time, he acknowledged that there were “certain shortcomings” in its construction.

Belarusian authorities and Rosatom, a Russian state-run nuclear group, withheld information on defects in reactor systems and incidents that occurred at the NPP in 2022, Lithuanian intelligence said. The Belarusian energy ministry dismissed the allegation as a smear.

Belarus builds the nuclear power plant near Astraviec, Hrodna region, using Russian funds and Russian reactor VVER-1200. The general designer and general contractor is the ASE engineering company, the parent organization of Rosatom’s engineering division.

Pilot operation of the first unit began in November 2020, and commercial operation in June 2021.

The second power unit is 98 percent ready. It would be connected to the grid in April and put into commercial operation in October 2023.