Pilot commercial operation of first unit of Belarusian nuclear power plant authorized

MINSK, 22 December (BelTA) – The state enterprise Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant has been granted permission to go ahead with a stage-by-stage program on the pilot commercial operation of the first unit, BelTA learned from the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry (Gosatomnadzor).

According to the source, on 21 December the Board of the Emergencies Ministry decided to amend the license of the state enterprise Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant for the right to carry out activities in the area of usage of nuclear energy and sources of ionizing radiation in order to allow the enterprise to start a stage-by-stage program on the pilot commercial operation of the first unit.

The permission is based on Gosatomnadzor's conclusion. In line with the effective legislation the regulatory agency had looked into results of the expert evaluation of the safety substantiation documents and had examined the readiness of the Belarusian nuclear power plant to carry out the mentioned activities.

The first loading of the reactor core, subcritical trials of the reactor unit, physical experiments at the minimum controlled reactor power level, reactor power startup, and pilot commercial operation are permitted after the readiness to carry out the relevant stages of the nuclear power plant commissioning procedure is checked and the special permits (licenses) are granted.

Once all these stages are completed, the matter of issuing the license to operate the first unit will be discussed. The license has to be issued before the government commission in charge of accepting the facility for operation starts working.

Gosatomnadzor pointed out that public hearings will be held in accordance with the legislation before the license to operate the first unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant is issued. The public hearings are supposed to notify the general public about progress and results of the expert evaluation of the applicant's safety and conformance with requirements and conditions of the license.

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 first unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2021, with the second one expected to go online in H1 2022.