Agreement with Russia on Belarusian nuclear power plant decommissioning concept to be prepared

OSTROVETS DISTRICT, 19 May (BelTA) – An agreement with Russia will be prepared on working out the concept for decommissioning the Belarusian nuclear power plant, BelTA learned from Belarusian Energy Minister Viktor Karankevich on 19 May.

Viktor Karankevich said: “World practice provides for working out the concept for decommissioning a nuclear power plant even before the nuclear power plant starts working. This concept takes into account a long list of organizational and technical measures. Our country keeps an eye on these matters. We intend to soon start work on preparing the concept with assistance of all the government agencies concerned. Experts of the Russian state corporation Rosatom have been invited to participate in this work. In order to formalize concrete algorithms of interaction we intend to ensure the development of the corresponding agreement. We are at the beginning of this road in this matter.”

The Belarusian nuclear power plant uses the Russian design AES-2006 featuring two VVER-1200 reactors with the total output capacity of 2,400MW. It is an evolutionary nuclear power plant design with third-generation water-moderated reactors. Such designs boast improved technical and economic parameters. A combination of active and passive safeguards is their key feature.