Experts praise Belarus’ presentation of spent fuel, radioactive waste management report in IAEA

The summary report on the 5th Belarus National Report on the implementation of the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management were positive, Grigory Astashko, Deputy Head of the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department (Gosatomnadzor) at the Emergencies Ministry of Belarus, told the press briefing at the BelTA press center.

“The 5th Belarus National Report on the implementation of the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management was presented at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna. International experts were appointed, and they conducted the work of this meeting. Their task was to gather all the questions and all the information, which was voiced, analyzed and discussed and make their findings. The report on the situation in Belarus has positive connotations,” he said.
Grigory Astashko stressed that the Belarus National Report aroused great interest. “Our presentation was attended by IAEA Deputy Director General Denis Flory. A total of 69 questions were asked during the peer review. Great attention to our report was shown by the neighboring countries. For example, the Republic of Lithuania asked 14 questions. The surprise came from the representatives of the Republic of South Africa who asked us 25 questions,” he said. The interest in the document was also shown by Germany, the United States, Ukraine, and France. The questions were about the legislative and regulatory infrastructure, activities of the special-purpose enterprise ECORES, the Chernobyl waste treatment system, the safety of the radioactive waste storage facilities at the Soviet Union military units, and the waste treatment strategy for the Belarusian nuclear power plant. Detailed answers were given to each of the questions. In addition, another 10 additional questions were asked during the meeting at the IAEA headquarters.

Particular interest was shown in the treatment of spent nuclear fuel of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, including its possible return, the terms of the approval of the BelNPP radioactive waste management strategy (to date, the strategy has been approved by the Government, at the time of the meeting document was under consideration).

The Fifth National Report was prepared in 2014. It was officially presented at the IAEA, posted at the websites of the IAEA and Gosatomnadzor. The report contains a list of spent fuel and radioactive waste treatment facilities in Belarus, the information about the state policy and practices in this field, the legislation, implementation of the recommendations issued following the previous report and other information. The document contains the information on the developments in 2012-2014. The document was prepared by Gosatomnadzor, in cooperation with other interested bodies of public administration.