Minsk decides to replace Belarus NPP’s dropped reactor vessel, Russian contractor unaware
The general contractor of the NPP construction in Belarus’ Astravets, has not received any official statements from Belarus about replacing a reactor vessel.
“Rosatom considers it premature to make any comment because no official statements from the Belarusian side have reached us,” news agency Interfax quotes Rosatom press service.
Earlier on Thursday, state-run news agency BelTA reported with reference to Belarusian Energy Minister Uladzimir Patupchyk said that Minsk had decided in favor of getting replaced a reactor vessel of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, which is being built with Russia’s assistance.
“The decision to get it replaced has been made,” he said.
As reported earlier, during installation the enclosure of the future reactor fell from the height of 2 – 4 meters at the construction site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant in Astravets (Hrodna region).
At first, the Belarusian Energy Ministry declined any comment on the situation. The press office group of Atomstroyexport, a subsidiary of the Russian state corporation Rosatom and the general contractor at the Belarusian NPP construction, said the information about the reactor’s fall was untrue.
Later, however, the Belarusian side confirmed that the ‘emergency situation had occurred in the storage area of the reactor body during its movement in the horizontal plane’ but failed to go into specifics.
The Energy Minister did not give the name of the subcontractor which allowed the incident at the NPP construction site. According to Rosatom, it was JSC Sesame which is not part of the state corporation.
Russia’s contractor insisted on the incignificancy of the installation incident. According to them, the reactor vessel was being moved at a height of 4 meters, when the crane broke down; then the vessel had been secured with a warp. For this reason, the body was hanging over an hour until it ‘touched the ground’.
“Even when it touched the ground the main production of weight of the reactor case – more than two thirds – was suspended by the crane. Thus using words such as “hit the ground” or “dropped” is wrong, it misleads people and distorts the essence of what happened, as the speed of the case movement did not exceed the walking speed,” said First Deputy General Director of the Rosatom corporation Alexander Lokshin.
Later, Rosatom expressed readiness to replace the reactor vessel.
In early August, Belarusian president Alyaksandr Lukashenka promised that Belarus would get rid of the reactor vessel that had been lately dropped if it suffered even the slightest bit of damage.
