MINSK, 24 May (BelTA) – Terms of returning spent nuclear fuel of the Belarusian nuclear power plant to Russia will be stipulated by a separate agreement, BelTA learned from representatives of the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry (Gosatomnadzor).
The source reminded that a strategy to handle spent nuclear fuel of the Belarusian nuclear power plant has been adopted in Belarus. The strategy determines how the system to handle spent nuclear fuel of the Belarusian nuclear power plant will develop. The document also specifies how spent nuclear fuel will be handled through the nuclear fuel lifecycle, specifies when the sites to bury spent nuclear fuel will be built and how much they will store. Resources required to accomplish these goals are also stipulated.
The design of the Belarusian nuclear power plant provides for ponds to temporarily store spent nuclear fuel. Spent fuel rod arrays will be extracted from the reactor's active zone to be stored in the cooling pond. The cooling ponds will be located inside the reactor buildings and will be able to store spent nuclear fuel for ten years. They will also allow extracting all fuel rods from the active zones of the reactors.
In accordance with the Belarusian-Russian intergovernmental agreement the fuel the Belarusian nuclear power plant buys from Russian contractors will be returned to Russia once it is spent. Terms of returning the spent nuclear fuel are yet to be specified by a separate agreement.
In line with the design documents all kinds of radioactive waste will be stored in long-term storage facilities in the Belarusian nuclear power plant's compound. The organized storage will allow extracting spent nuclear fuel packages for the sake of examining them and transporting to another storage site or burial site.
Solid radioactive waste with extremely low, low, and medium radiation signature will be put inside 200-liter metal containers. Liquid waste — once it is solidified — will be placed inside concrete irretrievable protective containers. The containers for radioactive waste allow transporting such waste in accordance with existing safety requirements. The Belarusian nuclear power plant will store radioactive waste for ten years in surface storage facilities. Every reactor unit will have a dedicated storage facility.
Such a storage facility will have a compartment designed to store highly radioactive waste for the entire lifecycle of the nuclear power plant.
In the course of its operation one power-generating unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant is expected to produce 83.5m3 of nuclear waste per annum, including highly radioactive waste.
