DATE:
21/01/2009
MOSCOW, January 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will be able to build a nuclear power plant in Belarus without a tender once the two ex-Soviet republics sign an inter-governmental agreement on civilian nuclear power use, Russia's Rosatom said Wednesday.
Russia and Belarus agreed to sign the inter-governmental agreement in the first quarter of 2009 during talks on Wednesday between the Belarusian government and a Rosatom delegation.
"The signing of this agreement opens up the possibility for the parties to switch to direct negotiations on a contract for the construction of the first Belarusian nuclear power plant on a turnkey basis," Rosatom said.
Belarus plans to build a nuclear power plant with a capacity of 2,000 MW, with the first unit to come online in 2016 and the second in 2018. The plant is expected to have Generation III water-moderated reactors.
Belarus earlier announced a tender for the plant and sent invitations to Rosatom, French-German firm Areva, and U.S.-Japanese company Westinghouse-Toshiba to participate in the tender.
Rosatom and Areva eventually confirmed their intention to participate, while no official response was received from Westinghouse.
Source:
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090121/119738551.html
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