Updated at 17:53,27-03-2024

Belarus and Russia may sign intergovernmental agreement on construction of nuclear power plant on May 28

"BelaPAN"

An intergovernmental agreement on the construction of Belarus’ nuclear power plant is expected to be signed at a meeting that the Belarusian-Russian Union State’s Council of Ministers will hold in Minsk on May 28, Russia’s Vedomosti newspaper reported with reference to Sergei Kiriyenko, director general of Russia's Federal Agency for Atomic Energy (Rosatom).

Mr. Kiriyenko raised the matter at a forum of the Russian nuclear industry’s exports held on May 26. The spokesperson for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told the newspaper that the matter was indeed under discussion.

Alyaksandr Tsimashenka, spokesman for the Belarusian prime minister, told BelaPAN that he "does not rule out that the nuclear power plant project may be raised during the talks." "But the signing of the document has not yet been placed on the meeting’s agenda," he said.

The construction of the 2,000-MW plant is expected to start in the Hrodna region near the Lithuanian border at the end of 2009. It is expected to account for 27 to 30 percent of the total domestic electricity output. One of the two 1000-MW reactors is to be put into operation in 2016 and the other in 2018.

The Belarusian government has selected Russia’s Atomstroiexport as the prime contractor.