MINSK, 4 August (BelTA) – So far Belarus is not planning to create a joint venture with Russia to export the electricity to be produced by the future nuclear power plant (NPP), First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko told reporters. “We are not working on this project today. There are pluses and minuses in this regard,” Vladimir Semashko said. Setting up a future NPP electricity export joint venture is one of the terms on which Russia is ready to sign the documents on the future nuclear power plant, according to Vladimir Semashko. The Belarusian side offers the Russian side to implement a project on the transit of electricity from Kazakhstan and other countries via Russia. We are also discussing a possibility of organizing swap electricity supplies from Kazakhstan. “It is no secret that Kazakhstan sells one kilowatt/hour for a cent or so while Russia offers the price of five cents,” he noted. So far it is the negotiation process, during which Belarus seeks to observe its own interests and the interests of Russia, Vladimir Semashko said. Belarus has plans to construct a nuclear power plant of the 2,400MW capacity in the Grodno oblast (Ostrovetskaya site). The first power unit will be put into operation in 2016, the second one – in 2018. The plant will be built upon the project of Saint Petersburg Atomenergoprojekt Institute. General contractor will be Atomstroyexport, a state-owned engineering company regulated by the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom).

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