Belarus project unaffected by fall in rouble against euro, says ministry

Belarusia's energy ministry has rejected media reports that claim changes in the value of the Russian rouble against the euro have negatively impacted its project with Russia to build a nuclear power plant at Ostrovets.

Mikhail Mikhadyuk, Belarusian deputy energy minister, said on 11 March that the head of capital construction at the company managing the project, Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant, had been misunderstood. Andrei Barkun had said that some suppliers to the project faced financial difficulty with contracts using the Russian rouble, but he was referring not to the general contractor - Russia's Atomstroyexport - but to several non-Russian suppliers of equipment, Mikhadyuk said.

"It is true that these suppliers have faced problems from the significant change to exchange rates and that it would be cheaper for them to pay forfeit penalties rather than fulfil their contracts, the prices of which are fixed in Russian roubles. On the other hand, if the contracts had to be terminated, new tenders would have to be arranged, construction would be delayed and equipment would most likely cost more. Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant and ZAO Atomstroyexport are now working out solutions to this," he said.

The ministry is "fully satisfied", he said, with Atomstroyexport's work on the project and construction is proceeding to schedule. Work on two reactor units is in progress and the project has sufficient funding. More than 3000 Russian and Belarusian construction workers are employed at the construction site and more will be employed there by the end of this year.

On 10 March, Belarus passed a law "On ratification of the protocol amending the agreement between the government of Belarus and the government of the Russian Federation on cooperation in the construction in Belarus of a nuclear power plant of 15 March 2011."

"As previously reported, the amendments to the agreement will allow, in particular, the efficient exchange of information necessary for the development of project documentation and the creation of a physical protection system, to solve a number of technical issues," the ministry said today. "Other changes in this agreement are a fixed construction period of 2018 for the first unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant and 2020 for the second."

The dates bring the agreement in line with previous decisions, in particular the general contract for the project of July 2012 and a Belarusian presidential decree of November 2013 on construction of the nuclear power plant.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News