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Belarus to choose radioactive waste burial site in 2025
08.01.2024
MINSK, 8 January (BelTA) – A site for burying radioactive waste will be chosen in Belarus in 2025, BelTA learned from Head of the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry (Gosatomnadzor) Olga Lugovskaya in an interview.
Olga Lugovskaya said: “Belarus adopted a strategy on nuclear waste management in 2023. It covers not only the waste generated by the Belarusian nuclear power plant but also the waste generated by the healthcare system, the manufacturing sector, and other branches. In other words, a general approach is part of the strategy. The Belarusian Radioactive Waste Management Organization (BelRAO) has been established as part of the Energy Ministry’s system. The organization will get a license from us to do all kinds of work relating to the design, construction, and operation of the radioactive waste burial facility.”
The strategy stipulates that radioactive waste generated in the course of operating the nuclear power plant will be stored at the nuclear power plant for ten years. “The first unit [of the Belarusian nuclear power plant] went online in 2021. It means that the new burial facility has to be ready to receive operational radioactive waste of the Belarusian nuclear power plant in 2031. This is why the country has to build the first stage of the facility by 2030. The decision on choosing the site will be made in 2025,” the Gosatomnadzor head noted.
In her words, very intensive work was done in 2023 to study technologies and approaches of the Russian Federation towards building such a facility. “We visited Russian facilities of this kind. As we build ours, we will rely on the regulatory environment and design solutions of the Russian Federation,” Olga Lugovskaya stressed.
Norms and rules were worked out in 2022 to introduce requirements for choosing the site for building such a facility. A safety handbook was approved in late 2023. It describes how the site should be chosen while meeting all the requirements. “We tightly cooperate with our colleagues from the Energy Ministry, the Belarusian Radioactive Waste Management Organization, the nuclear power plant, the Joint Institute for Power and Nuclear Research Sosny, which works out guidelines and approaches to realizing various technical solutions in this sphere,” the Gosatomnadzor head added.
In her words, a government commission will be set up in Q1 2024 to choose the site for building the radioactive waste burial facility. The environmental impact of potential sites will be evaluated then. All the prepared documents will be discussed during public hearings. “But this time they will not be organized by the regulatory body – Gosatomnadzor. It is the responsibility of the operating organization (BelRAO) and the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry,” Olga Lugovskaya clarified.
The process of granting permits and the perusal of documents concerning the licensing of the radioactive waste burial facility will begin. Gosatomnadzor will have to organize public hearings before granting the license to the operating organization (BelRAO) just the way it was done before the license to operate the first and second units was granted to the state enterprise Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant.
“In accordance with an agreement with the Russian Federation spent nuclear fuel will be transported to Russia for processing using special methods. The resulting nuclear waste will be sent back to Belarus. So in the distant future the facility will also store waste resulting from the processing of spent nuclear fuel,” Olga Lugovskaya said.
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