MINSK, 30 May (BelTA) – Belarus will prepare a national report on the results of the stress tests at the Belarusian nuclear power plant (BelNPP) in September 2017, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko told the media on 30 May, BelTA has learned.
“The Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry (Gosatomnadzor) is drafting a national report on the results of the stress tests at the BelNPP together with the Joint Institute for Power and Nuclear Research Sosny of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. The report should be ready in September and submitted to the European Commission on our own initiative. All members of the European Union are required to submit the information to the EC, and we could choose not to provide such data. However, we have decided to do this to prevent any speculations and fabrications,” Vladimir Semashko said.
If EC representatives have any remarks or complaints, they will be able to come to Belarus and study the records related to the stress tests, the vice premier added. “If there are any complaints (I do not think there will be any fundamental ones), we will do our best to take them into account to prevent any political, rather than technical, issues,” he added.
Belarus stress-tested its nuclear power plant in 2016 using European methods and taking into account recommendations based on the European Commission's and the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group's (ENSREG) specifications. As part of the stress testing process the resilience of the Belarusian nuclear power plant as well as its adaptation to extreme impacts was tested. The safe operation of the nuclear power plant in the face of extreme external impacts was tested. Consequences of natural phenomena were forecasted such as combinations of floods, extreme weather conditions and external impacts, consequences of the nuclear power plant's losing safety functions due to the loss of external power.
The Belarusian nuclear power plant is a project to build a new-generation nuclear power plant with two VVER-1200 type reactors (1,200MW each) 18km away from Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. The first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2019, with the second one to go online in 2020.
