Belarus has connected its first nuclear unit to the grid — a 1.2GW reactor at the Astravyets plant. The unit is due to begin commercial operations in the first quarter of 2021.
The plant will eventually consist of two 1.2GW units — both VVER-1200 pressurised water reactors — built by Russia's state-run Rosatom.
The first unit started delivering electricity to the grid at 12.03 local time today, Rosatom and Belarus' energy ministry said. Rosatom director-general Aleksey Likhachev hailed the launch as the "start of nuclear era" for Belarus.
Rosatom is building VVER-1200 reactors in around a dozen countries outside Russia, and the Belarus unit is the first of these to be connected to the grid. Several are already operational in Russia. Rosatom says they fully meet international security standards developed after the accident at Japan's Fukushima-Daiichi plant in 2011.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) representatives have visited the Belarus site seven times since construction began, according to Rosatom and the energy ministry.
But the Baltic states say the plant does not meet international standards. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia agreed in September to boycott electricity imports from Belarus after Astravyets starts generating.
Lithuania has also informed the IAEA that from 2021 it will stop providing Belarus with 100MW of reserve capacity. The 2001 BRELL electricity agreement requires Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to provide each other with reserve power and assistance in the event of outages. The three Baltic states plan to leave BRELL and fully synchronize their grids with Europe's power system by 2025.