Belarusian-Russian agreement on spent nuclear fuel ratified by parliament's lower chamber

MINSK, 18 April (BelTA) – The House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus has passed a bill on ratifying the agreement between the government of the Republic of Belarus and the government of the Russian Federation on cooperation in the management of spent nuclear fuel, BelTA has learned.

The bill was brought into the House of Representatives by the Council of Ministers on 7 March. It was developed for the sake of ratifying the agreement between the government of the Republic of Belarus and the government of the Russian Federation on cooperation in the management of spent nuclear fuel. The agreement was signed in Sochi on 21 November 2022.

The agreement regulates the import of irradiated fuel rod arrays of nuclear reactors into the Russian Federation for temporary technological storage and consequent processing followed by the return of radioactive waste to the Republic of Belarus. The fuel rod arrays of nuclear reactors are described as fuel rod arrays of Russian make, which are irradiated in a nuclear reactor of a nuclear power plant built in the territory of the Republic of Belarus, are extracted from the reactor and contain nuclear fuel.

Licenses (permits) will be required for cooperation within the framework of the agreement. The agreement specifies competent bodies: the Energy Ministry in Belarus and the state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom in Russia.

The competent bodies are supposed to appoint the relevant authorized organizations. The agreement stipulates that in order to transport the irradiated fuel rod arrays and consequently process them, contracts will be signed between authorized organizations. Among other things the contracts will stipulate the volume of cooperation, rights and obligations of authorized organizations and third-party contractors and other terms of cooperation.

In line with the agreement Belarus' competent body will be granted authority in line with Belarus' legislation to make decisions on transporting every batch of irradiated fuel rod arrays to Russia and on bringing radioactive waste back to Belarus.