“The turbine unit achieved the nominal speed in accordance with the test program. All performances, including the vibration state, are normal, which allows us to begin the program of testing the turbine at idle speed and the generator before grid connection,” said Vitaly Polyanin, Director of the Belarusian NPP construction project, ASE EC.
The start-up program began at unit 1 of the Belarusian NPP on August 7, 2020, when the 1st fuel assembly with fresh nuclear fuel was loaded into the reactor. On October 11, at the stage of the physical start-up, the reactor achieved 1st criticality (less than 1% of the rated power). The physical start-up stage included more than 50 physical measurements that confirmed the compliance of the reactor nuclear and physical characteristics with the design.
On October 23, Belarusian NPP State Enterprise and ASE EC received the permission for the power start-up staged program at unit 1 from the Belarusian Ministry of Emergency Situations.
At present, the unit power is being gradually increased up to 40%. In the coming days, a series of tests provided for by the unit commissioning program will be carried out on the equipment and process systems. After that, unit 1 will be connected to the grid and begin to supply the 1st KW-hours to the unified energy system of Belarus.
The Belarusian NPP with 2 reactors of VVER-1200 type with a total capacity of 2,400 MW is being built in Ostrovets. Power unit 1 of the Belarusian NPP is the 1st unit of the latest generation "3+" built abroad based on the Russian technologies.
