On June 2, the collegium of the Ministry for Emergency Situations of the Republic of Belarus has taken a positive decision on amending the license of the "Belarus NPP" State Enterprise for the right to operate in the area of atomic energy use which allows starting the commercial operation of the Belarus NPP power unit No. 1 (its general designer and general contractor being the Engineering division of ROSATOM).
The decision is based on the expert statement of the Gosatomnadzor of the Republic of Belarus, the positive outcomes of examination of the safety-justifying documents and on assessment of the applicant's compliance with the licensing requirements and conditions.
The stage of power unit No. 1 physical start-up was started at the Belarus NPP on August 7, 2020. November 3, 2020 was the date of the power start-up when the power unit was connected to the grid of the Republic of Belarus. On December 22, 2020, the trial operation of the power unit commenced.
The Belarus NPP equipped with two VVER-1200 reactors of 2400 MW total capacity is being constructed in Ostrovets (the Republic of Belarus). The Russian III+ generation design that is fully in line with the international standards and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safety recommendations has been selected for the first NPP in Belarus. The Belarus NPP Unit 1 has become the first Gen III+ unit in operation built abroad based on the Russian technologies. Currently, four power units of the similar type are being successfully operated in Russia, including units at the Novovoronezh NPP and the Leningrad NPP.