ASE Group has conducted a test-run of all four of the main circulating pumps of the first unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant as part of preparations for hydraulic testing of the systems and equipment of its primary and secondary circuits.

Belarus's first nuclear power plant is being built by ASE (Image: ASE)

ASE, the engineering arm of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, is the general designer and main contractor of the project to build Belarus’s first nuclear power plant, which is near Ostrovets in the Grodno region. It is being built using Russian VVER-1200 reactors to give 2340 MWe net capacity online. The first unit is scheduled for commissioning this year, with the second unit to be brought online in 2020.

Vitaly Polyanin, ASE vice president and supervisor of the Belarusian project, said hydraulic testing is one of the most important stages in commissioning the unit.

In order to confirm the first unit is safe to operate, pressure in the primary circuit will be gradually raised to 24.5MPa while pressure in the secondary circuit will be raised to 11.5MPa, the ASE Group statement added.

Announcing the start of commissioning work at the plant on 5 April, ASE Group said the procedure for water-cooled power reactors consists of four stages - pre-commissioning; physical start-up; energy start-up; and experimental-industrial operation.

An intergovernmental agreement between Russia and Belarus specifically on cooperation in the construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus was signed in March 2011.