Belarusian nuclear power plant design meets cutting-edge safety requirements

OSTROVETS DISTRICT, 17 March (BelTA) – The design of the Belarusian nuclear power plant meets state-of-the-art safety requirements. Belarusian Deputy Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk made the statement as a delegation of the lower chamber of the Russian parliament visited the Belarusian nuclear power plant on 17 March, BelTA has learned.

Mikhail Mikhadyuk said: “When the decision to build the Belarusian nuclear power plant was made, we looked at all the world vendors of nuclear technologies and chose the Russian design. As of today it remains a cutting-edge design. It is a Generation 3+ design and the world's top-selling one. Out of the seven nuclear power plant units, which construction began in 2022, five units were built according to this design. It speaks volumes.”

The official underlined that the Belarusian nuclear power plant design meets cutting-edge safety requirements. “It very conveniently combines a set of active and passive safeguards. Active systems can be turned on by automation solutions or by the operator while passive systems can be triggered by an emergency cooling of the unit without human interference thanks to laws of physics,” the Energy Ministry representative explained.

In his words, every nuclear power plant unit has four independent safety systems, which ensure absolutely safe operation. “Every unit is fitted with four diesel generators, which will be triggered by total loss of power. We've learned the lessons taught by the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant and installed additional movable generators at every nuclear power plant unit. It enables safe operation of safeguards,” the deputy energy minister noted.

Various non-routine situations starting with floods and ending with falling aircraft were analyzed in preparation for the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. “We were getting ready to anticipate all the possible risks such as, for instance, the failure of some mechanism. Multiple redundancies and backups are built in,” Mikhail Mikhadyuk stressed.