MOGILEV, 3 May (BelTA) – This autumn the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry will stage an emergency response exercise together with Russian rescue workers at the Belarusian nuclear power plant, BelTA learned from Belarusian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Vashchenko in Mogilev on 3 May.
The official said: “We started theoretical and practical preparations for getting ready to deal with emergencies at the nuclear power plant a long time ago. The first joint exercise with Russian colleagues took place at the Smolensk nuclear power plant back in 2010. The other day we decided to stage a similar joint exercise at the Belarusian nuclear power plant this autumn. Following the relevant agreement with the Russian side such exercises will be regularly arranged at operating Russian nuclear power plants for the sake of studying the best practices of our colleagues. We also intend to learn from colleagues from other countries. For instance, an agreement on exchanging information concerning the safety of nuclear power plants has been reached with Slovakia.”
The emergencies minister pointed out that a fire station was one of the first facilities commissioned at the construction site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. It is fully manned (116 people) and fitted with cutting-edge equipment for dealing with any emergencies. All the oversight agencies are housed in the same building. “In other words, we closely monitor safety parameters of the nuclear power plant under construction. We cannot afford neglecting the matter because no other country better understands all the possible consequences. We had to deal with the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster and put a lot of efforts into dealing with its consequences today,” stressed Vladimir Vashchenko.
In his words, the Belarusian nuclear power plant's construction site and the construction design have been repeatedly checked by international experts, including those of the International Atomic Energy Agency. All of them spoke in glowing terms about the progress of construction work and safety measures employed by the Belarusian nuclear power plant.
The Belarusian nuclear power plant is being built not far from the town of Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. The power plant will have two power-generating units of the Russian design VVER-1200. They will be able to generate up to 2,400MW of electricity. The nuclear power plant is being built using the AES-2006 design. It is a standard Russian design for a three-plus generation nuclear power plant with improved technical and economic parameters. The first power-generating unit is expected to go online in 2019.
