2 Jul (NucNet): Belarus has made “important progress” in its development of nuclear infrastructure and is “on its way” to being well-prepared for construction of a nuclear plant, an IAEA review has concluded.
The Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR) mission made 17 recommendations and 25 specific suggestions to help the national authorities in the eastern European county prepare the infrastructure for a nuclear power programme, a statement said.
The recommendations included further legislative steps for Belarus to consider taking, as well as suggestions for meeting IAEA milestones for development of a national infrastructure for nuclear power.
“We also recognised that Belarus has strong expertise especially in radiation protection, and environmental monitoring,” the IAEA said. The review team singled out the benefit of Belarus having good coordination within development of its nuclear power programme.
Mikhail Mikhadiuk, Belarus’s deputy minister of the ministry of energy, said the results of the INIR mission will be useful to Belarus as it “progresses to strengthen the national nuclear infrastructure”.
The IAEA said Belarus began considering nuclear energy in the 1980s and recently renewed its efforts. A September 2007 decree called for the commissioning of two nuclear reactor units by 2020.
In March 2011 Belarus signed an inter-governmental agreement with Russia for two reactor units as well as fuel supply, take-back of spent fuel, training and other services the IAEA said.
The units, planned to be built in Astravets in the Belarusian region of Grodno, will be ES-2006 model pressurised water reactors, each with a capacity of up to 1,200 megawatts.
