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19 April 2017, 19:02

Plans to sign cooperation agreement between Belarusian, Lithuanian nuclear industry watchdogs

MINSK, 19 April (BelTA) – The Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry (Gosatomnadzor) intends to sign a cooperation agreement with the State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate (VATESI), BelTA learned from the Gosatomnadzor head Olga Lugovskaya on 19 April.

The official said: “We've been trying to sign an agreement with Lithuania since 2014 at the level of regulators or the government level that will allow us to share information. We have yet to succeed. But we will keep working on it. We have signed agreements with all the neighboring countries. We are in negotiations with Latvia although the country has no nuclear plants.” A similar agreement with Slovakia is in the pipeline. “I would like to note that all these agreements are signed rather promptly. The provisions they contain satisfy us from the point of view of information acquisition and information provision,” said Olga Lugovskaya.

The Gosatomnadzor-VATESI draft cooperation agreement expects the signatories to cooperate not only during emergencies at nuclear installations. The sides are expected to share information about regulations in this sphere and information concerning the development of the relevant legislation. “The agreement may apply to a very large number of things. Everything depends on how much information a country is willing to share and how closely it intends to cooperate,” said the Gosatomnadzor head. The Belarusian agency counts on productive interaction with the Lithuanian side and intends to use all the international platforms for it, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Belarusian First Deputy Emergencies Minister Vasily Stepanenko pointed out that Belarus and Lithuania will still share information despite the lack of a formal agreement. “Information will be shared within the IAEA framework. Our information will be sent to the IAEA first and then to the other country,” he explained.

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