Background radiation around Belarusian nuclear power plant remains stable

MINSK, 11 January (BelTA) – Background radiation levels in the area of the Belarusian nuclear power plant remain stable, BelTA learned from Mikhail Kovalenko, Head of the Radiation Monitoring Service of the National Center for Hydrometeorology, Radioactive Contamination Control, and Environmental Monitoring of the Belarusian Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry, at a press conference on 11 January.

The official said: “There are ten automatic measuring stations around the Belarusian nuclear power plant. We receive data from them every ten minutes. The data includes gamma radiation levels and information about radionuclide content in the air. The situation in this area remained stable through 2020.”

Apart from that, three sites to collect aerosol samples of the surface layer of the atmosphere at nearby weather stations (Naroch, Oshmyany, and Lyntupy) have been operating in the area of the Belarusian nuclear power plant since 2016 in addition to three sites for monitoring radiation in surface waters and four sites for monitoring radiation in soil. They have already been added to the list of sites of the national monitoring system. Observation regulations have been worked out. “We have not recorded any deviations from previous measurements,” the official noted.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is being built near Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast using the Russian design AES-2006 featuring two VVER-1200 reactors with the total output capacity of 2,400MW. The pilot commercial operation of the first unit of the nuclear power plant began in December 2020.