Atommash, a Volgodonsk-based subsidiary of a company controlled by Russia’s Nuclear Energy State Corporation (Rosatom), is to supply a total of some 4,000 tons of equipment to the nuclear power plant in Astravets between 2013 and 2017.
Earlier, independent newspaper Narodnaya Volya raised questions over Atommash’s performance, describing it as a company teetering on the brink of bankruptcy with a history of wage delays and an exodus of highly skilled workers.
The company had what it takes to supply high-quality reactor equipment to the Belarusian plant, Atommash press office told news agency BelaPAN. According to the press officer, Atommash had been given a license to make equipment for nuclear power reactors following a thorough audit by a federal agency and was making equipment for a nuclear power plant under construction in Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave.
The parent company plans to spend more than $16 million on the modernization of Atommash, said the press office, adding that the manufacturer’s “main unique equipment” was “in good condition and is constantly serviced by the company’s maintenance department”. According to the information provided, Atommash had Italian- and German-made equipment controlled by a computerized system developed by German giant Siemens.
The press office said that Atommash would start supplying equipment to the Belarusian plant as early as this year. It promised that all of the equipment to be supplied to Belarus would be subject to rigorous safety and quality checks. Atommash is to be paid more than three billion Russian rubles ($97 million) under the contract.
Belsat, following BelaPAN
