OREANDA-NEWS. October 16, 2008. The offer of Atomstroyexport concerning the type of reactor for the future Byelorussian NPP is the most preferable of all, the deputy director of “Sosny” Joint Nuclear and Energy Research Institute Nikolay Grusha said on Wednesday.
 
Grusha is expected to shortly be appointed as the head of the Department for Development of Nuclear Energy of the Ministry of Energy of Belarus.

Atomstroyexport has offered us several projects. The advantage of the Russian offer is that Atomstroyexport already has reference reactors: two operating in China, two under construction in India.

And both China and India want Atomstroyexport to build more reactors in their territories.

Unlike Atomstroyexport, neither Westinghouse-Toshiba nor Areva have launched the reactors considered by Belarus as the best for the moment – WWER (water-water energy reactor) of the third generation with a capacity of more than 1,000MW.

Grusha pointed out that Atomstroyexport had offered capacity of 1,000MW for each reactor – something Belarus exactly needs.

By this end of this year Belarus will decide where it will build its NPP. There are three potential sites: Ostrovetsky (Hrodna region), Kukshinovsky and Krasnopolyansky (both Mahilyow region). Krasnopolyank site has been examined by 100%, Kukshinovsky – by 70%, Ostrovetsky – by 50%. All of them are suitable for hosting an NPP.

Grusha said that Belarus was actively cooperating with IAEA in selecting the site. The Agency has sent a number of missions. The last one visited Belarus in May 2008, the next one is expected to come shortly to assess the preparatory work.