Rosatom to launch joint programs with Belarus within 1-2 years

MINSK, 29 June (BelTA) – Rosatom intends to launch joint programs with Belarus within the next 1-2 years. Eduard Nikitin, Director of Nuclear Decommissioning Programs at TVEL Fuel Company, mentioned the plans in BelTA's press center on 29 June. TVEL Fuel Company is the Russian state nuclear industry corporation Rosatom's integrator in charge of decommissioning nuclear and radiation-hazardous facilities and managing radioactive waste.

According to Eduard Nikitin, Belarus-Russia cooperation boasts unprecedented openness and sincerity. “Both sides aim not only for safety and economic advisability but also for the application of the best practices. Cooperation with Belarus is an opportunity to show the best we have to our other partners. For Belarus it is an opportunity to get the best technologies, the best solutions, and our entire experience. Apart from that, within the framework of the Union State of Belarus and Russia there is a unique opportunity to launch joint programs meant to ensure radiation safety and the development of technologies. And we are now working out these programs and intend to launch them within the next 1-2 years. In particular, on a typical facility for storing radioactive waste and equipping it with detectors. It will be useful for Belarus to accomplish its current tasks and for us to promote the full cycle of services abroad – from a nuclear power plant with fuel to final isolation of waste,” Eduard Nikitin said.

TVEL Fuel Company is the base institution of the Commonwealth of Independent States for managing radioactive waste. The company representative appreciated Belarus' approaches to accomplishing tasks in nuclear energy industry. “The first unit [of the Belarusian nuclear power plant] has been commissioned while the second one has not yet. But matters of burial of radioactive waste, the choice of the site for building the relevant facility, the management of spent nuclear fuel are already being addressed and at the practical level at that. I'd like to mention high professionalism of Belarusian colleagues. Belarus has retained specialists and traditions since Soviet times. The knowledge gets passed on to new generations,” he remarked.