ST. PETERSBURG. Oct 11 (Interfax) - CJSC Atomstroyexport and Belarus have signed a contract agreement for the building of the first nuclear power plant in Belarus near the town of Ostrovets in Grodno Region.
The agreement was signed by the director of Belarus's Directorate for Atomic Electric Station Construction Mikhail Filimonov and Atomstroyexport's president, Alexander Glukhov. It lays out the main conditions for the 'turn-key' building of two generating units with combined capacity of up to 2,400 mWt. The plant will be erected under the AES-2006 project worked up by the St. Petersburg outfit Atomenergoproekt (SPBAEP).
Glukhov told reporters that the parties are coordinating a credit agreement for the plant's construction that should be signed later this year or early next year. A general construction agreement is planned for signing at the same time, he said.
The money will be earmarked from the Russian budget and the agent bank will be Vnesheconombank (VEB), he said.
Neither party has specified a contract price tag for building the nuclear power station, but they have said the base for calculating the cost would be that of building the nuclear plant in Kaliningrad Region.
Deputy Belarusian Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk said that the plant, the construction which is planned for completion before 2020, will make it possible to lower gas consumption in the country to 5 billion cubic meters, and also to reduce gas emissions and the cost of producing electric power.
Belarus calculates that overall construction financing, including infrastructure, will come to about $9.4 billion, including somewhat over $6 billion for building the power plant itself. Belarus is looking to get a $9 billion credit from Russia for the plant's construction, including the cost of infrastructure for it. Not long ago, the country's Energy Ministry announced that the credit agreement process was in the end stages. The idea is that the agreement will not in the end stipulate a firm amount, but will lay out the terms for Russia opening a credit line of up to $10 billion for financing the construction of the nuclear power plant.