Belarusian nuclear power plant equipped with necessary safeguards

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is equipped with the necessary safeguards. Director of the Scientific and Engineering Center for Nuclear and Radiation Safety (Russia) Aleksandr Khamaza made the statement during the online conference held on 22 July to discuss benefits and prospects of peaceful uses of nuclear energy in Belarus.

Aleksandr Khamaza noted: “The Belarusian nuclear power plant is a generation III+ nuclear power plant. It is a new, advanced, evolutionary generation with VVER-1200 type reactors. They are fitted with the necessary passive and active safeguards. The fact has been recognized by International Atomic Energy Agency experts.”

The Belarusian nuclear power plant has backup power generators among other things. According to the expert, these generators will keep all the safeguards working in any accident, even a power outage. In particular, it will allow shutting down the nuclear power plant without overheating, without an incident, and so on. “Let me stress once again that the nuclear power plant has a sufficient number of safety systems, independent generators, which are constantly checked,” Aleksandr Khamaza concluded.

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 is the general contractor. The first unit is supposed to go online in 2020, with the second one scheduled for launch in 2021.