ENSREG experts to visit Belarusian nuclear power plant on 31 August – 2 September

MINSK, 26 August (BelTA) – Experts of the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) are expected to visit the site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant on 31 August – 2 September, the press service of the Belarusian Energy Ministry told BelTA.

According to the source, ENSREG experts will work at the site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant as part of the second phase of the peer review of the national action plan, which was put together as a result of stress tests of the nuclear power plant. The group will include 15 experts from Austria, Germany, Ukraine, Czechia, Switzerland, Lithuania, Greece, and Finland. Petteri Tiippana, Director General of the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK), will head the group.

The experts will evaluate progress in fulfilling the national action plan taking into account the recommendations ENSREG gave in 2018. They will analyze progress in the realization of planned measures by the Belarusian side. The experts will focus on three aspects of the stress tests: external natural impact, loss of power and loss of the ultimate heat sink, and the management of severe accidents.

The first phase of the peer review by ENSREG took place in Q1 2021. ENSREG experts visited the Belarusian nuclear power plant site in February 2021. They went to all the facilities they were interested in, including the reactor room of the second unit, the control room of the first unit, the backup diesel power generator building, the fire station, the accident prevention control room, the full-scale simulator in the education and training center. They were made familiar with all the materials they had requested. The work focused on seven priority areas, which had to be analyzed before the first unit was commissioned.

As a result of the first phase a preliminary report was passed by a plenary session of the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group in March 2021. A statement made by ENSREG Chairperson Marta Ziakova pointed out the progress Belarus had made in acting upon ENSREG recommendations on priority matters of the national action plan. The ENSREG head spoke in positive terms about cooperation with the Belarusian side.