Pilot operation stage started at the 1st power unit of Belarus NPP

Ostrovets, December 24 - Neftegaz.RU. The pilot operation stage started at Belarus NPP power unit 1 of III+Gen with VVER-1200 reactor (Rosatom’s Engineering Division is the General Designer and the General Contractor), as specialists started a gradual reactor power increase up to the rated power.

A permit to proceed to this stage was issued by the Board of the Ministry for Emergency situations of Belarus.
According to Vitaliy Polyanin, the Vice-President and Belarus NPP Construction Director of ASE EC:

• pilot operation is the final longest testing of the power unit prior to its commissioning;
• specialists are to gradually perform a wide range of equipment tests & inspections at the reactor plant power;
• ranging from 75% up to 100%, including dynamic tests with forced shutdown of various main equipment;
• its expected to be done in the 1st quarter of 2021.

Start-up operations at Belarus NPP power unit 1 started on August 7, 2020, when the 1st fresh fuel assemblies were loaded into the reactor core.
On October 11 the reactor was then brought to the minimum controlled power level (less than 1% of the rated power).
On November 3 the power unit has been connected to the unified power grid of Belarus.

Belarus NPP having two VVER-1200 reactors with the total capacity of 2400 MW.
The Russian III+ generation design that is fully compliant with the international standards and the IAEA safety recommendations, has been selected for the 1st NPP in Belarus.

The Belarus NPP Unit 1 has become the 1st Gen III+ unit in operation built abroad based on the Russian technologies.
Currently, 3 power units of the similar type have been successfully operating in Russia.