Lithuania urges to shut down Belarus’ NPP until stress test recommendations are fully complied with

<p> MINSK, Feb 10 - PrimePress. The Lithuanian State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate (VATESI) demands a halt of start-up and operation of the Belarusian nuclear power plant (Astravyets District, Grodno Oblast) until the recommendations that followed the stress tests are fully complied with. Belarus is said to have failed 21 out of 29 recommendations, VATESI stated on its official website on February 9, 2021. </p> <p>   </p> <p> “Since the implementation of the recommendations of the stress tests continues to be ignored and the Belarusian NPP is located close to the EU border near heavily populated areas, we urge the Belarusian authorities to immediately implement all recommendations. This means that the launch and operation of the first power unit of the NPP should be stopped until all safety issues are resolved,” reads the statement. </p> <p>   </p> <p> VATESI says Belarus only has “partially” implemented eight out of 29 recommendations after the stress tests conducted in 2018. The Lithuanian regulator believes that recommendations related to the assessment of the NPP performance under seismic impact and its stability in an aircraft accident have not yet been followed. </p> <p>   </p> <p> The peer review of the findings of the Belarusian NPP stress tests was carried out by experts of the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) in 2017-2018. No safety deficiencies (noncompliance with the requirements of Belarusian regulations based on the IAEA safety standards) were found. </p> <p>   </p> <p> Belarus voluntarily carried out the stress tests according to the European Union’s procedure. Based on the findings, experts made several recommendations on the margin of safety in excess of that required by normative acts and safety standards. The mission’s findings served as a basis for Belarus’ national action plan that comprises 23 measures with deadlines for the period from 2019 to 2025. Some of the recommendations have already been implemented, including those related to additional safety systems and equipment </p> <p>   </p> <p> According to the Energy Ministry of Belarus, a group of European Commission and ENSREG experts is working at the NPP site on February 9-10 as part of the peer review of the National Action Plan for the stress tests. </p> <p>   </p> <p> The European Parliament will discuss a resolution on safety of the Belarusian nuclear power plant on February 11, 2021. The draft resolution, in particular, states concern over the location of the nuclear power plant (50 kilometers from Vilnius) and close to the EU border. The European Parliament regrets the “lack of transparency and official information about repeated emergency reactor shutdowns and equipment failures at the stage of the plant commissioning in 2020.” </p> <p>   </p> <p> Belarus’ first nuclear power plant in Ostrovets (a town in the Grodno Oblast also referred to as Astravyets) will have two units with a combined capacity of up to 2,400 megawatts. The AES-2006 Russian standard design of (generation 3+) was chosen for its construction. Rosatom’s division Atomstroyexport acts as the general contractor for the NPP construction. The Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant RUE is the project customer and the future operator of the NPP. The ceremony of the official launch of the NPP took place in early November 2020. According to presidential decree No.447 of November 30, 2020, the first power unit of the NPP will be put into commercial operation in 2021, the second power unit – in the first half of 2022. End </p>

2021-02-11

Primepress