Energy ministry announces new repairs at nuclear plant for Q4 2023

February 23, BPN. The next “scheduled maintenance repairs” at Unit 1 of the Belarusian nuclear power plant (NPP) are set for the fourth quarter of 2023, the Ministry of Energy said.

The repairs will include an expanded monitoring of technological systems, checks of turbines and reactor equipment, as well as the loading of fresh nuclear rods which have been delivered to the plant, its press release said.

A quarter of 163 fuel assemblies in the reactor’s core needs to be replaced annually, it noted.

The NPP’s Unit 2 is 98 percent ready, the energy minister Viktar Karankievič said. Start-up operations are underway to bring the reactor to the minimum controlled level of one percent of its full capacity to check its reliability and safety, he noted.

Unit 2 is scheduled to start commercial operation in the second half of 2023.

In November 2022, Unit 1 of the Belarusian NPP was reconnected to the grid after repairs which started in April and lasted over six months, instead of the planned 80 days.

The Belarusian NPP is located near Astraviec, Hrodna region, some 10 miles away from the Lithuanian border. It has been built with a Russian loan. Lithuania views the plant as unsafe and describes it as a “geopolitical weapon.”