IAEA praises Belarus’ nuclear energy promotion model

Belarus’ model of promoting its nuclear energy program is hailed by the IAEA as one of the most successful. The opinion was voiced by Deputy Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Alexander Bychkov during the online conference hosted by the BelTA website on 23 June.

“We recommend Belarus’ model to other countries in the following aspect. Today there are various approaches to running nuclear programs in the world. There are countries that build nuclear power plants on a commercial basis with the support of the state, like the United Arab Emirates. There are also countries that build up a specialized solid state vertical while building nuclear power plants, like Belarus. In other words, in Belarus the state is responsible for the construction, supervision and preparation for operating the NPP. Both models are good. However, the second model can work better than the first one for some countries. Each country makes its own decisions in this respect. However, we believe that the Belarusian model is among the most efficient ones,” the Deputy Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

According to Alexander Bychkov, the level of Belarus-IAEA cooperation can be an example for other countries starting their nuclear programs. “While promoting its own nuclear energy, Belarus follows the recommendations of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” he added.

In November 2013 the Ostrovets site saw the launch of concrete pouring operations to build the first power-generating unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. The Belarusian nuclear power plant will have two power-generating units with the total capacity of up to 2,400MW (1,200MW each). The Russian design AES-2006 was chosen to build the power plant. The design is fully compliant with international standards and IAEA recommendations. The Russian public joint-stock company OAO NIAEP – ZAO Atomstroyexport is the general designer and the general contractor for building the power plant. The timeline for implementing the project is stipulated by the general contract. The first power-engineering unit of the nuclear power plant is scheduled for launch in November 2018.