BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

22/05/2008

Belarus, China to sign deal on civilian nuclear power sector cooperation

Minsk. May 22. INTERFAX - Belarus and China will sign an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the peaceful utilization of nuclear energy, as is evident from directive No. 688 of the Belarusian Council of Ministers posted on the national legal Internet portal.

The document envisions "negotiations on a draft agreement between the Belarusian and Chinese governments on cooperation in the peaceful utilization of nuclear power."

A Belarusian Energy Ministry source told Interfax that the draft agreement concerns a broad range of issues, including the training of personnel, the operation of nuclear power plants, and scientific support.

Belarus could also consider equipment supplies from China, the source said. Belarusian Ambassador to China Anatoly Tozik has been authorized to negotiate the project on Belarus' behalf.

It was reported earlier that Belarus had decided to develop its civilian nuclear power sector and build a nuclear power plant for this purpose. Belarus plans to bring into operation power unit 1 in 2016-2017 and unit 2 in 2020. Minsk expects the project to cost $3 billion-$4 billion, provided that two 1-mWt power units are built. After power unit 2 reaches is projected capacity, Belarus could reduce natural gas consumption by 5 billion cubic meters.

Belarus is currently considering three possible sites for constructing a nuclear power plant, two of them, namely the Kukshinovskaya and Krasnopolyanskaya, in the Mogilyov region and the third, Ostrovetskaya, in the Grodno region. The final decision on the issue is to be made at the end of 2008, and construction work on the site should start in 2009

Source:

http://www.interfax.com/4/395953/news.aspx

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