BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

11/10/2007

Lukashenko says Belarus needs nuclear power plant

MINSK, October 11 (Itar-Tass) - Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said Belarus would begin building a nuclear power plant in 2008.

He did not elaborate on who would construct the plant and on its site

"We have not made our mind about the construction site," he said at a government meeting on Thursday.

A possible construction site in the Mogilev or Grodno region was mentioned earlier.

Lukashenko said in April that a winner in open international biddings would have the right to build the nuclear power plant in Belarus.

"This matter will not be decided in the lobbies," he then promised.

Priority will be given to a contractor who endeavours to build the plant at a lower cost and with a better quality.

"If Russia wins in these biddings, we shall certainly build it with Russia," Lukashenko said.

Belarussian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky said in June that a "decision on the construction of the nuclear power plant in Belarus has been made".

"In the near time we shall determine the amount and sources of the financing, and we shall declare a tender for the construction," he said.

Russian Federal Agency for Nuclear Power Director Sergei Kiriyenko said Russia "is ready to interact with Belarus in the construction of the nuclear power plant on its territory, and the company Atomstroieksport has held a presentation (of the project) and submitted necessary documents".

However, talks on the nuclear power plant project were later suspended.

The Belarussian side explained that the Russian company was "too busy with construction orders in 2008".

Belarus' senior executive of the nuclear oversight service Promatomnadzor, Alexei Shcheglov, then said that Belarus was holding talks with a French company that was ready to build the plant in 2008-2018.

The presidium chairman of the Belarussian National Academy of Sciences, Mikhail Myasnikovich, said the future nuclear power plant could prove a combined project, in which one company would design and manufacture the reactor, and another would make and install measurement instruments.

Myasnikovich also said in February that the first 1,000-megawatt reactor could be launched in 2014 and the second with the same capacity in 2016.

The price of the two reactors and their infrastructure is an estimated 3 billion dollars, Myasnikovich said.

He added that Belarus could take a World Bank credit for the construction of the nuclear power plant.

With time the Belarussian government has decided to speed up the nuclear power plant project.

Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky said the construction could be completed in five years.

He is of opinion that the third reactor could be built in prospect.

"At present, two sites are for the construction of the nuclear power plant are being evaluated. These sites allow building three energy units," Sidorsky said.

The electricity supply from the nuclear power plant in Belarus is expected to replace 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas by 2016.

With the nuclear power plant, the proportion of gas used for electricity generation is to decrease from the current 95 percent to 50 percent by 2020.

Source:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11956919&PageNum=0