The Russian government has approved a draft protocol on amendments to an agreement on granting Belarus state export credit for the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power station, unconfirmed reports by state news agency Belta said.
According to Belta, Russia is proposing to extend the loan period by two years until the end of 2022 with a fixed interest rate of 3.3% a year. The start of repayments will be postponed from 1 April 2021 to 1 April 2023.
Belta said the Russian government has asked the finance ministry and foreign ministry to hold talks with Belarus and to sign the protocol.
According to Belta, Russia is proposing to extend the loan period by two years until the end of 2022 with a fixed interest rate of 3.3% a year. The start of repayments will be postponed from 1 April 2021 to 1 April 2023.
Belta said the Russian government has asked the finance ministry and foreign ministry to hold talks with Belarus and to sign the protocol.
Belarus’s deputy energy minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk said in May that loading of nuclear fuel at the first power unit of the Belarusian nuclear station is scheduled for July.
Belta reported Mr Mikhadyuk as saying the July schedule had been confirmed by the project’s general contractor Atomstroyexport, the engineering division of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom.
Earlier in May Rosatom announced that the first nuclear fuel had arrived onsite at the Belarusian facility, the country’s first commercial nuclear station.
Russia is building two 1,109-MW VVER-1200 reactor at the Belarusian site. Construction of Unit 1 began in November 2013 and of Unit 2 in April 2014.
