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Belarus likely to stop importing electricity after completion of nuclear plant, scientist says

Belarus is likely to stop importing electricity after its first-ever nuclear power plant is completed in the Hrodna region, Alyaksandr Mikhalevich, a member of the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences, told reporters in Minsk on December 22.

He described the construction of the nuclear facility as an "import substitution project despite the fact that the design and the fuel are Russian."

Only slightly more than 60 percent of Belarus' power generating facilities are used simultaneously even during peak demand for electricity, while imported electricity has accounted for 10 to 30 percent of the country's consumption since the 1990s, according to Dr. Mikhalevich. Half of Belarus' power plants are antiquated facilities that were built back in the 1960s and 1970s. "It turns out that the generation of power by these plants costs us more than the import of cheaper electricity in Russia and Ukraine," he said.

Belarus has exported virtually no electricity but plans to start doing so after the completion of the nuclear power plant, according to the scientist. //BelaPAN