Radionuclide measuring stations to be added to national monitoring system in Belarus

MINSK, 25 October (BelTA) – Plans are in place to add radionuclide measuring stations to the national monitoring system, BelTA learned from Zoya Trafimchik, Deputy Head of the Service - Head of Radiation Monitoring Department of the National Center for Hydrometeorology, Radioactive Contamination Control, and Environmental Monitoring (Belhydromet), during the roundtable session “National radiation monitoring. Modern challenges and prospects”.

Zoya Trafimchik said: “Another project of the International Atomic Energy Agency has been approved for us. It is dedicated to the improvement of radiation monitoring and to warning about emergency radiological situations in the context of realization of the first nuclear program. Moreover, we will carry out this project together with the Emergencies Ministry. As part of these projects we expect to open new observation sites for measuring radionuclides. The Belarusian nuclear power plant takes these measurements in its own territory. Now we are going to add them to the national monitoring system.”

In her words, Belhydromet specialists are also expected to undergo training in the R&D enterprise Typhoon in Russia.

Zoya Trafimchik went on saying: “We expect proposals on sharing the best practices with other developed countries in the area of nuclear energy from the IAEA. It is important for us to understand whether our monitoring systems are sufficient considering the commissioning of the Belarusian nuclear power plant and other challenges of the modern world. There are many ideas for new joint projects, which will recheck and verify all the data. We need to be sure that everything is under control. The catastrophe at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant taught us that.”

She added that by 2030 Belarus is supposed to build a facility for burying radioactive waste. Observation and radiation monitoring stations will have to be placed around the facility as well.