Belarus and Russia signed a general contract for the construction of a nuclear power plant

July 18, Minsk / BelTA /. Belarus and Russia have signed a general contract for the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, BelTA correspondent reports. The general contract defines the obligations and responsibilities of the parties, the project implementation timeline, its approximate cost for the period up to 2020, payment terms, equipment supply, construction organization, commissioning of power units, and other conditions. The industrial operation of the first NPP unit is planned for November 2018, and the second one for July 2020. The fundamental principle in preparing the draft general contract, as well as the contract agreement, was that the cost of the Belarusian NPP would be formed based on domestic Russian prices under the same pricing conditions as for the construction of nuclear power plants in Russia using the base-index method. At the same time, the cost of the Belarusian NPP should not exceed the cost of the Baltic NPP under comparable conditions. Russia is ready to provide Belarus with a preferential long-term state loan for 25 years in the amount of up to $10 billion. The commissioning of the NPP will allow Belarus to replace about 5 billion cubic meters of imported natural gas annually, reduce the cost of electricity production, decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 7-10 million tons, and significantly increase energy security. The Belarusian NPP, consisting of two power units with a total capacity of up to 2400 (2x1200) MW, will be built at the Ostrovets site in the Grodno region. The "NPP-2006" project was chosen for its construction, which fully complies with international norms and IAEA recommendations. On October 11, 2011, a contract agreement on the construction of the NPP in Belarus was signed, which is essentially a framework agreement and mandatorily defines the main provisions of the general contract. -0-