WANO's peer review at Belarusian nuclear power plant over

MINSK, 10 December (BelTA) – Experts of the Moscow Center of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO MC) have finished a prelaunch peer review of the second unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, the press service of the state enterprise Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant told BelTA.

The WANO MC team included representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine. The purpose of the prelaunch peer review was to evaluate the readiness of the second unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant for safe and reliable launch and consequent operation.

As a result of the peer review Director of the Moscow Center of the World Association of Nuclear Operators Vasily Aksenov said: “The Belarusian nuclear power plant demonstrated high openness. Knowledgeable specialists, who have gone through the launch and commissioning of the first unit, work at the nuclear power plant. Preliminary results indicate that after some time the second unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant will be ready for loading fresh nuclear fuel into the nuclear reactor and for continuing consequent launch operations.”

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is being built near Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast using a Russian Generation III+ design featuring two VVER-1200 reactors with the total output capacity of 2,400MW. The design is fully compliant with international norms and recommendations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).