MINSK, 10 November (BelTA) – The fund to finance efforts to maintain and bolster the safety of the Belarusian nuclear power plant will be established before the nuclear power plant goes online, BelTA learned from the sixth national report on fulfilling the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management.
The fund will be established to finance R&D work, research efforts, and other kinds of work designed to keep up and enhance the safety of the nuclear installation and/or the storage facility.
Apart from that, the Belarusian nuclear power plant will establish a fund for decommissioning the nuclear installation. The fund will be used only to finance the decommissioning, premature retirement, or the limitation of operational parameters of the nuclear installation and/or the storage facility.
The Energy Ministry together with interested government agencies is working out a draft presidential decree to regulate the formation and usage of the fund for decommissioning the Belarusian nuclear power plant and the fund to finance the safe operation of the nuclear power plant.
In order to evaluate and further improve the nuclear and radiation safety infrastructure, Belarus has requested and intends to welcome a number of IAEA assessment missions. An operational safety review (pre-OSART) mission is expected to arrive in 2018. It is recommended to invite the mission three to six months before nuclear fuel is loaded. Belarus will welcome an Emergency Preparedness Review Service (EPREV) mission in March 2018. The pre-EPREV mission was in Belarus on 25-27 January 2017.
Apart from that, Belarus intends to welcome an Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR) mission for the third phase of the nuclear energy program.
