MINSK, 10 July (BelTA) – Blueprints for building a facility where radioactive waste of the nuclear power plant can be safely stored is being developed, BelTA learned from the website of the Belarusian Energy Ministry. The website released information about a set of measures designed to provide scientific support for the development of the nuclear energy industry.
The project to store radioactive waste (except for high-level radioactive waste) generated in the course of operation and decommissioning of the Belarusian nuclear power plant is in the blueprint phase. Researches to build the facility are being carried out. Recommendations to create the general system of protective barriers to safely keep radioactive waste have been worked out. The radioactive waste burial facility will allow isolating nuclear waste of the nuclear power plant and preventing the possible negative environmental impact of nuclear waste.
Math models have been developed to make the storage of radioactive waste safer. Software is available to calculate the migration of radionuclides from the burial site into the geosphere via man-made and natural barriers of shallow ground repositories for radioactive waste. Ways of handling the high-energy waste that Belarus will get from Russia after spent nuclear fuel of the Belarusian nuclear power plant is processed in Russia have been analyzed. Recommendations on the final phase of the fuel cycle of the nuclear power plant have been presented.
Researches are also in progress to prepare for the physical launch of the first power-generating unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, to confirm the safety and economic effectiveness of the loads for the active zone of the reactor, to evaluate the state of the metal the reactor pressure vessel is made of over the course of the nuclear power plant's operation.
