Rosatom expects to reach agreements with Minsk on Belarusian NPP third unit in coming months - CEO

MOSCOW. July 6 (Interfax) - The Rosatom Russian state nuclear energy corporation may reach final agreements on building a third power unit at the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) within the next few months, Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev said in an interview with the Vesti news service.

"The republic burst into the world's top ten largest countries with nuclear power plants and got this extra appetite, this extra willingness. And we are seriously discussing the third unit today," he said.

"It is a reasonable decision. And I hope that we will reach final agreements within the next few months as regards both the technological configuration and the economic model of the project," Likhachev said.

Likhachev said in an interview at the beginning of the year that "the Belarusian economy will be ready to accept this electricity during the 2030s."

The plant in Ostrovets currently consists of two Russian-designed 1.2 GW reactors. The first power unit of the Belarusian NPP was put into operation in 2021, and the second in 2023.