Belarusian nuclear power plant needs no serious adjustments after stress tests

OSTROVETS DISTRICT, 9 October (BelTA) – The Belarusian nuclear power plant does not need any serious adjustments in the wake of the stress tests, BelTA learned from Chief Engineer of the state enterprise Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant Anatoly Bondar as foreign reporters visited the nuclear power plant on 9 October.

The official said: “The Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry (Gosatomnadzor) has prepared a national action plan in the wake of stress tests of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. The plan reads that no fundamental serious adjustments are needed. Most of the measures are geared towards carrying out additional studies to evaluate safety margins of the Belarusian nuclear power plant and are of a long-term nature.”

The chief engineer reminded that the stress tests confirmed the Belarusian nuclear power plant is protected against scenarios that involve a full loss of power, including in combination with natural calamities such as those that befell the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan – an earthquake, a tsunami, and flooding.

All nuclear power plants are subjected to stress tests after the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan in order to evaluate their resilience to extreme conditions. The Belarusian nuclear power plant was subjected to stress tests in 2016 in line with European methods and taking into account guidelines developed by the European Commission and the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG).

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. ASE Company is the general designer and general contractor in the project to build the Belarusian nuclear power plant. It also represents Rosatom's engineering division.