Belarusian students undertake internship at Russian nuclear power plant

Students of the Belarusian National Technical University (BNTU) spent two weeks getting familiar with peculiarities of operation of the Smolensk nuclear power plant. It was the fifth group of students from Belarus to undertake an internship at the Smolensk nuclear power plant.

The Smolensk nuclear power plant has been cooperating with the BNTU since 2013. Over the course of seven years Russian specialists have helped train over 50 Belarusian future nuclear industry professionals, said Marina Shindina, a leading specialist with the Human Resources Department of the Smolensk nuclear power plant.

Anastasia Pavlovskaya, a senior lecturer at the Heat and Electric Power Plants Chair of the Belarusian National Technical University, is convinced the practice is very useful, helps students write diploma papers, and gives new knowledge. “The students ask a lot of questions and instructors of the education and training center of the Smolensk nuclear power plant always give exhaustive answers. They always want to meet students half way and tell them about every detail,” the senior lecturer noted.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is being built near Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast using a Russian design featuring two VVER-1200 reactors with the total output capacity of 2,400MW. Rosatom's engineering division – ASE Company – is the general contractor. The first unit is supposed to go online in 2020, with the second one scheduled for launch in 2021.

The Smolensk nuclear power plant generates about 20 billion kWh of electricity for the Russian power grid every year and accounts for roughly 11% of the energy generated by Rosenergoatom Concern and over 80% of the energy generated by Smolensk Oblast electric companies.