Work in progress to improve nuclear safety standards in Belarus

The Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry works to improve safety standards, BelTA learned from Olga Lugovskaya, Head of the Department.

The official said that the process is endless. She went on saying that they understand safety standards as the combination of relations, attitudes, and requirements used on a daily basis. “We oversee the operator and other organizations involved in the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant and should set an example,” said Olga Lugovskaya. According to the source, the Department should establish a smoothly operating management system. Every employee should fulfill all the requirements for the product of their labor and all decisions should be made in the name of safety while ruling out negative consequences. Highly trained personnel are also part of the standards. “All of this indicates that we are working to raise safety standards,” concluded the Head of the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry.

A high-level delegation led by IAEA Deputy Director General Denis Flory visited Minsk in early December 2014 for the sake of raising nuclear safety standards. Denis Flory spoke highly of the Belarus government’s attention to nuclear safety standards.

A nuclear power plant is under construction 18km away from Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. The Belarusian nuclear power plant will have two power-generating units with the total output capacity of up to 2,400MW (2x1,200MW). The Russian merged company OAO NIAEP – ZAO ASE is the general designer and the general contractor of the project. In line with the general contract for building the nuclear power plant the first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2018, with the second one to go online in 2020.