Belarus to build third unit at nuclear power plant

The decision was taken at a meeting on Friday, hosted by President Alexander Lukashenko. The government has stressed the need for new capacity and studies have been carried out to decide whether that will be in the form of a new unit at the country's first nuclear power plant, in Ostrovets, or at a new site in the east of the country.

Lukashenko, according to an account of the meeting on the President's website, noted that the population of Ostrovets had nearly doubled to 15,000 people with many high quality jobs and "graduates from energy faculties dream of getting a job there".

He said that the option of building a third unit at the existing plant had the benefits of an already approved site as well as a skilled workforce and the necessary social infrastructure: "The ground conditions there have already been thoroughly studied. There is no need for any additional surveys."

Although the option of building a new nuclear plant would cost more, it had the benefits that it could "transform the eastern region from a backwater into a highly developed territory of Belarus. This means new jobs, investment, innovative projects, and new technologies", he said.

Vice Premier Viktor Karankevich said the decision to go ahead with the third unit at Ostrovets would also be matched by work to survey potential sites in Mogilev Oblast, in the east of the country, with the possibility of more new capacity in that region if energy demands supports it.

_{(Image: Belarus President's Office)}

During the meeting, the performance of the existing nuclear power plant was reviewed, five years after the first unit came online.

Lukashenko said: "The construction of the nuclear power plant not only strengthened our energy security, but also determined the further development of Belarus as a high-tech state ... we have provided ourselves with a source of affordable, environmentally friendly energy for decades to come, and have achieved an economic and environmental effect."

He also stressed the electrification of the country, in heating and transport, and said that according to surveys, public support for nuclear energy in the country had risen from 60% before the Ostrovets plant was built, to more than 80% now.

The Belarus nuclear power plant has two VVER-1200 reactors and is located in Ostrovets in the Grodno region in the northwest of the country. A general contract for the construction was signed with Russia's Rosatom in 2011, with first concrete on the first unit in November 2013. Construction of unit 2 began in May 2014. The first power unit was connected to the grid in November 2020, with the second unit put into commercial operation in November 2023. More than a quarter of Belarus's electricity is now generated by nuclear.

Rosatom reported that its Director General Alexey Likhachev held talks on Thursday with Alexander Turchin, Prime Minister of Belarus at which "the two sides discussed in detail possible options for the further development of Belarus's nuclear energy sector".