Belarus nuclear plant Director: situation in Russia will not affect plant

The current economic situation in Russia will not affect the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. This is what its General Director Mikhail Filimonau told BelaPAN. He said that despite the significant depreciation of the Russian ruble, the project financing is sustainable, uninterrupted and comes in required quantities. Filimonau believes there will be no missed deadlines and funding cut-outs.

In his comment on the time period of the plant construction, the company director said that the amended protocol to the intergovernmental agreement on the construction of nuclear power plant, ratified by the parliament in late February, "has the correct commissioning dates for units of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, recorded in the general contract for its construction, signed July 18, 2012".

As Filimonau explained, it provided a pre-commissioning dates of the plant, which as a result of careful study of the issue with the general contractor and the general designer, were simply updated with the signing of the general contract. Therefore, "we are not discussing the change (transfer) of the construction timing of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, all the work is done based on the schedule," said the head of the nuclear power plant construction.

Filimonau also denied the information about the outflow of employees from the Russian construction companies due to late payments. He said, the number of employees in the construction from Belarus and from Russia is growing - in March 2014 there were 1,600 people, and now - 3,155. By the end of the year, the total number of employees will increase to 6,100 people.