MINSK, 14 January (BelTA) – Belarus and Russia intend to sign an intergovernmental agreement on the processing of spent nuclear fuel of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. The statement was made by Deputy Director of the Nuclear Energy Department of the Belarusian Energy Ministry Lilia Dulinets during the meeting held on 14 January to discuss with the general public an ecological report on the strategic ecological evaluation of the Belarusian nuclear power plant's spent nuclear fuel management strategy, BelTA has learned.
The official said: “Once the strategy on handling spent nuclear fuel of the Belarusian nuclear power plant is authorized, we will get down to working out an intergovernmental agreement on sending spent nuclear fuel to Russia for processing. I can tell you even more than that: our Russian colleagues have already sent us the draft agreement in a routine manner. They are also interested in it. The Russian Federation is our strategic partner in implementing the Belarusian nuclear power plant project.”
The Belarusian nuclear power plant is being built near Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast using a Russian design featuring two VVER-1200 reactors with the total output capacity of 2,400MW. The first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2019, with the second one to go online in 2020.