MINSK, 17 May (BelTA) – The Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry (Gosatomnadzor) is working out a strategy on managing the country's radioactive waste, BelTA has learned.
According to Gosatomnadzor, an interagency working group will be established in order to take into account opinions of all the interested government agencies in the course of creating the document. Gosatomnadzor will also organize public hearings of the draft strategy.
The strategy will include the creation of an integral infrastructure for managing radioactive waste to enable collection, processing, long-term storage, and burying of all kinds of waste, including by means of setting up a national operator and a centralized facility for storage and burial. The strategy will also regulate the handling of radioactive waste from legacy installations: radioactive waste storage facilities of the special enterprise Ekores and sites where decontamination waste of Chernobyl origin is buried. Apart from that, the strategy provides for developing R&D efforts in the management of radioactive waste, for developing the manpower potential, and addresses other issues.
Once the strategy is ready, it will be forwarded to the government for approval.
