Nuclear safety in Belarus: overview, international obligations, assessment

Step-by-step licensing of Belarusian nuclear station construction praised

The step-by-step licensing of the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant is justified, said Olga Lugovskaya, Head of the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry, during a press conference in BelTA’s press center on 21 April.

“The practice has turned out to be a good one and popular,” explained Olga Lugovskaya. “It allows continued construction of the nuclear power plant. Economy matters if safety considerations are kept in mind. Even all IAEA documents stipulate that development should be prioritized if safety is taken care of”.

The Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry is now preparing to license the main stage of the construction of the first power-generating unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. The licensing work began in 2011 with licenses issued to Belnipienergoprom and the United Energy and Nuclear Research Institute Sosny. The two bodies acted as experts for evaluating the nuclear power plant design. In May 2012 the Nuclear Power Plant Construction Directorate issued a license to place the first and second units of the power plant. The license to build the bottom part of the foundation of the first power-generating unit was issued in September 2013. February 2014 saw the license to build the foundations and the bottom parts of the first and second power-generating units of the Belarusian nuclear power plant.

Olga Lugovskaya explained that the step-by-step licensing scheme had been chosen by the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry as the scheme that fits modern conditions best. The official underlined that despite the high level of references all the expert evaluations are carried out as if it was the first time the nuclear power plant design is used. “Every new power plant, every new facility is unique. Expert evaluation is carried out in full without thinking about previous reference evaluations,” she concluded.

Construction workers started pouring concrete into the foundation of the facilities that will make up the first power-generating unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant at the Ostrovets site in November 2013. The Belarusian nuclear power plant will boast two power-generating units with the total generating capacity of up to 2,400MW (1,200MW each). The Russian design AES-2006 has been chosen to build the power plant. The design is fully compliant with international standards and IAEA recommendations. The Russian merged company OAO NIAEP – ZAO Atomstroyexport (ASE) 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-generating unit of the nuclear power plant is scheduled for launch in November 2018.

Belarus considering construction of research nuclear reactor

Belarus is considering the construction of a research nuclear reactor, Acting Director General of the Joint Institute for Energy and Nuclear Research - Sosny Andrei Kuzmin told a press conference at BelTA’s press center.

“At the moment we are considering a feasibility study of the research nuclear reactor project,” said Andrei Kuzmin. There are plans to hold preliminary consultations on this issue with Russian experts. Based on the results of the work done, a decision will be made on the feasibility of building such a facility in Belarus.

Andrei Kuzmin said that any country that develops nuclear power should consider the possibility of establishing a research nuclear reactor. Such installations are, as a rule, multi-use and allow solving complex scientific and production problems.

According to Andrei Kuzmin, in 1962 the institute in Sosny launched a 2MW research nuclear reactor. In the 1970s its capacity was raised to 5MW. In the late 1990s, the reactor was decommissioned.

Positive evaluation of Belarus’ Nuclear Safety Convention report

Belarus’ national report on fulfilling the Nuclear Safety Convention has received a positive international evaluation on the whole, said First Deputy Emergencies Minister of Belarus Vasily Stepanenko at the press conference in BelTA’s press center on 21 April.

Parties to the Convention have to prepare detailed reports every three years. Belarus has been presenting its reports since 1999. The latest report dealt with the development of nuclear power engineering and covered the project to build Belarus’ first nuclear power plant in detail.

The Belarusian report was prepared in August 2013. In line with the established procedure Belarus had to answer questions from all the parties to the Convention while the Belarusian side was free to ask questions from other countries regarding their reports. According to the Emergencies Ministry, Belarus received 116 questions from the USA, Russia, and other countries with a well-developed nuclear industry as well as questions from countries with nascent nuclear industries. “Poland, Ukraine, and Lithuania, which were interested in safety levels, demonstrated their strongest interest,” explained Vasily Stepanenko. He attributed the interest in the Belarusian report to the fast construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant.

The report was officially presented in the IAEA HQ in Vienna in late March during a conference of parties to the Convention. The Belarusian delegation included representatives of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, and the Emergencies Ministry. The report is freely available on the website of the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry.

Belarus to present renewed draft agreement on Espoo Convention to Lithuania soon

The Belarusian Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry plans to present a renewed draft agreement on implementing the Espoo Convention to Lithuanian colleagues soon, said Alexei Raiman, Deputy Head of the Economic Cooperation and Sustainable Development Office of the Central Office for Multilateral Diplomacy of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, at the press conference in BelTA’s press center on 21 April.

“The Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry is now preparing a renewed draft agreement and I think it will soon be forwarded to the Lithuanian side for the sake of starting the negotiations,” he said. The specialist pointed out that the Espoo Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment stipulates only minimal requirements for cooperation between two countries with regard to the transboundary impact of this or that facility. Countries are advised to sign a bilateral agreement to clearly legislate cooperation schemes.

Alexei Raiman remarked: “We expect the Lithuanian side to finally come to understand that bilateral cooperation in radiation safety and environmental protection, including relating to the construction of nuclear facilities, is unavoidable”. In particular, experts from Belarus expect the Lithuanian side to step up interaction on these matters and that Belarus and Lithuania will be able to arrange mutual information sharing and consultations between technical specialists.

The work on the Belarusian-Lithuanian agreement to fulfill the Espoo Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment has been going on for several years already. Last year the Belarusian Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry sent a proposal to resume the work on the draft agreement to the Lithuanian side.

First Deputy Emergencies Minister of Belarus Vasily Stepanenko also underlined that Belarus and Lithuania do not have a document on the mutual notification about an emergency at nuclear facilities. Lithuania is the only neighboring country with which Belarus has not signed such an agreement yet. He said he hopes that the IAEA will help representatives of the sides to get the negotiations off the ground. “If Lithuania refuses to negotiate, it will not benefit that country in any way,” stated Vasily Stepanenko.

Belarusian nuclear safety watchdog to better cooperate with independent technical support bodies

Belarus will pay close attention to the further development of the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry for the sake of implementing proposals voiced by parties to the Nuclear Safety Convention in Vienna in late March. The proposals were voiced as part of the presentation of the 6th national report on fulfilling the Convention, said First Deputy Emergencies Minister of Belarus Vasily Stepanenko during the press conference in BelTA’s press center on 21 April.

In his words, after the report was presented and the overall positive evaluation of nuclear safety levels in Belarus was given, some challenges for Belarus were formulated. As the main challenge the regulating body will have to properly evaluate the documents submitted to get the license and will have to enable proper oversight over the Belarusian nuclear power plant’s construction process. The Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department is quite a young agency, said the official. The Belarusian nuclear power plant is the first nuclear power plant the agency oversees. A lot has to be done to establish and develop the competence of the regulating body, explained the First Deputy Emergencies Minister.

The Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department also has to improve interaction with independent technical support structures. The key one is the United Energy and Nuclear Research Institute Sosny. This interaction grows more prominent taking into account the need to create an inspection system at the nuclear power plant construction site. “The inspectorate has been created, personnel numbers have been determined, people are being recruited and trained,” said the official. “Personnel training is our most important task on the whole. The demand for competent specialists is high because the number of personnel employed by the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department was doubled in 2013 alone,” said Vasily Stepanenko.

He said that the personnel numbers and the organization structure of the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry will be revised and improved later on to match the construction of the nuclear power plant.

“We will definitely bear in mind all the proposals voiced by parties to the Convention particularly since Belarus is implementing its first nuclear project,” stated the First Deputy Emergencies Minister.

In turn, Olga Lugovskaya, Head of the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department, noted that the Belarusian agency closely cooperates with colleagues from Ukraine and Russia, who boast considerable experience of oversight in nuclear energy and nuclear safety matters. The Belarusian and Russian agencies signed an agreement on cooperation in the regulation of nuclear and radiation safety matters in late 2013. The agreement is supposed to expand cooperation that began with the creation of the Belarusian agency. Belarusian specialists are offered on-the-job training during inspections of nuclear energy facilities. In February 2014 the first comprehensive training inspection of the Belarusian nuclear power plant construction site took place. The inspection involved Russian consultants and representatives of all the Belarusian ministries and agencies in charge of overseeing the construction of the nuclear power plant and the operation of the facility later on.

Belarus’ nuclear watchdog to supervise BelNPP project on site

A branch of the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department will start operating on the construction site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant (BelNPP) at the end of 2015, Head of the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department under the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry (Gosatomnadzor) Olga Lugovskaya said at a press conference at the BelTA press center on 21 April.

“The creation of the necessary working conditions on the construction site is under discussion. I think we will send one permanent representative there by the end of the summer. The entire branch will become operational by the end of the next year,” she said.

Olga Lugovskaya noted that the first group of specialists to be deployed at the Ostrovets construction site had already been formed. “These are young specialists; they should learn to perform supervisory functions,” the Gosatomnadzor chief said.

The Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department (Gosatomnadzor) is a structural subdivision of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry having the rights of a legal entity. It was set up in 2007 to regulate matters of nuclear and radiation safety with a view to implementing the Belarusian domestic nuclear energy project.